The Scottish Naturalist. 6$ 



Gardens, which were under the charge of a relative, and there 

 he spent some years as a gardener. His evenings were devoted 

 to study, or to long rambles in search of plants — now across the 

 Earn to the Ochils, and again to the outlying spurs of the 

 Grampians ; and in this way he acquired a complete knowledge 

 of the local flora. " On one of these botanical rambles," writes 

 his grandson, George Alexander Don, in a letter to me, "he 

 fell in with a young woman carrying a heavy pitcher of water. 

 Entering into conversation with her, and helping her by taking 

 her burden from her and carrying it himself, he began his 

 acquaintance with Caroline Stewart, his future wife — an active, 

 energetic woman, as my father has described her to me." 



Where he went to on leaving Dupplin is matter of uncertainty. 

 It is said he went to the south of England, and after remaining 

 there for a few years, came to Edinburgh and wrought as a 

 gardener. In 1790 — it may be a year or two earlier — he was 

 settled as a nurseryman in Forfar, where he remained till his 

 death. He was appointed Superintendent of the Edinburgh 

 Royal Botanic Garden under the Regius Keepership of Professor 

 Rutherford (1784- 1819), but whether before he returned to 

 Forfar or after, cannot now be known. If after he took up his 

 residence in Forfar, he must have held the appointment but for 

 a very short time, as by a careful collation of dates incidentally 

 given in his 'Account of the Native Plants,' &c, it is clear he 

 was never long away from Forfar after 1790 — the year in which 

 he found the Caltha radicans. 



The ground which he converted into his famous Botanic 

 Garden was a patch of nearly two acres lying just outside the 

 town of Forfar to the north — a feu from the estate of Carsegray. 

 The ground as a whole sloped to the west, and was shaped 

 somewhat like a horse- shoe. From all sides, except the west, it 

 fell towards the centre, from which a small oval-shaped knoll 

 rose, known as the Dove hillock. On this Don built his house. 

 From this knoll the ground dipped down to the west into what 

 had been at one time the bed of Forfar Loch. Here he formed 

 a large artificial pond, which he stocked with aquatic plants 

 and fish. A walk ran round the garden, leaving room for a 

 broad border, in which the native plants were arranged accord- 

 ing to their orders, in their appropriate soils, of which there was 

 abundance of all kinds at hand — loam, clay, sand, gravel, and 

 moss. In addition to this he rented several acres of land from 

 the town, which were used as a nursery for young trees. 



