The Scottish Naturalist. 113 



1 



Why the publication was stopped I do not know. It may 

 have been on account of his removal from Edinburgh to Forfar, 

 — for he was, at the time it was published, superintendent of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. 1 Or it may not have paid 

 to continue it. At Forfar he was more his own master. He 

 had no classes to attend to during the summer months, as he 

 had in Edinburgh. His time was spent in a great measure as it 

 had been before he left. He made long excursions for plants 

 in summer and autumn. In winter he arranged his dried speci- 

 mens. He was in the habit of making up herbaria for gentle- 

 men who wished them. On one occasion we find him engaged 

 in the formation of "a complete herbarium of all the British 

 plants" for some one who had employed him. This was an 

 occupation from which a steady income could not be expected. 

 His exclusive devotion to what he calls his " favourite science " 

 prevented him from giving that attention to the nursery which 

 was needed if it was to be made a paying concern. He himself 

 was not only often absent, but, in later years, he was in the 

 habit of taking some of his apprentices or workmen with him to 

 the hills. This they did not at all relish. They could not en- 

 dure the camping out at night, and soon left him. His affairs 

 grew more and more embarrassed, and matters came to a crisis 

 in 1 81 2, when some sort of arrangement — the exact nature of 

 which I have failed to learn — had to be come to with his credi- 

 tors. He never recovered this. His death following so soon 

 after, he had no time — let him be as careful as he might — 

 to get over his difficulties. So poor indeed was he, that in 

 the following year, when on his deathbed, his family were in 

 a state of absolute want, and had to depend for their daily bread 

 on the charity of neighbours. 



But the end was not far off. He came home from one of his 

 excursions at the close of the autumn of 1813, labouring under 

 a severe cold. He went about for some time not thinking seri- 



1 Since the first part of this sketch was published, I have seen that por- 

 tion of the Winch correspondence in the library of the Linna:an Society, 

 Burlington House, which relates to Don. This was kindly placed at my 

 service by the secretary of the Society, B. Daydon Jackson, Esq. It con- 

 tains eight letters from Don to Dr Winch of Newcastle. From these it 

 appears that he went to the Botanic Garden in Edinburgh in the early part 

 of December 1S02. The last letter from Edinburgh is dated 3d December 

 1805. The last fasciculus appeared in 1S06. At the latest he was in Forfar 

 in the following year. 



VOL. VI. H 



