192 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



were evident casuals ; three have become extinct owing to cultiva- 

 tion or drainage ; thirteen were misnamed, usually by Sir J. R. 

 Smith, and ten remain open to "grave suspicion of error." 



B. Don's Admitted Discoveries. -- These include numerous 

 additions to the British flora, others to the Scottish, and very many 

 to the county records. 



C. George Dons Herbarium Britanniaim gives a verbatim copy 

 of the labels on the several specimens (225 species in all, of which 

 5 2 are cryptogams) issued for sale. 



D. George Don's Private Herbarium also gives verbatim the 

 labels on the plants, chiefly Graminacea^ with a few Cyperacece and 

 Juncacea. Among the specimens are several both rare and interest- 

 ing. The names given by Don are corrected where inaccurate. 



R. Observations on some of the Indigenous Grasses of Britain, 

 which seem deserving of Culture for Pasture or Hay, reprinted from 

 "Trans. Highland Soc. of Scotland," vii., 1807. 



F. Account of the Native Plants in the County of Forfar and the 

 Animals to be found there, reprinted from Headrick's "General View 

 of the Agriculture of the County of Angus or Forfarshire," 1813. In 

 this are enumerated the species known to him, including cryptogams 

 as well as flowering plants, the rarer and more lately discovered 

 forms being specially picked out, and the more interesting forms of 

 certain localities enumerated together. A considerable number of 

 casuals and some evident errors appear in these lists. 



G. Letters from G. Don to N. J. Winch, and from George Don, 

 Jr., to Dr. Neill. 



From these various sources, supplemented by footnotes con- 

 tributed by Professor Balfour, one can form a conception of the 

 man, of his devotion to the investigation of the Scottish flora, of the 

 difficulties that beset his way and that would have appeared insur- 

 mountable to one of less resolute spirit, of the share that his 

 personal peculiarities had in adding to his difficulties, of the 

 limitations under which he worked, and of the causes, certain or 

 very probable, that vitiated the accuracy of some of his records, 

 both those published by himself and those in J. R. Smith's 

 "Flora," and that were held to justify an estimate of his work too often 

 very unfair to him ; and one can realise how great were the actual 

 results of his labours, and how much more admirable in face of the 

 difficulties to be overcome. There is surely little, if anything, more 

 to be said on Don's life and work, and Mr. Druce deserves hearty 

 thanks for what he has done so fully and well. 



