PHYTOLOGY, 



THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF A SCOTTISH NATURALIST, 



GEORGE DON OF PORFAR. 



By JOHN KNOX. 

 {Continued from page 1 1 6. ) 



WHETHER the sketch suggested in the above letter was 

 ever written cannot now be known ; if it was it has 

 dropped out of sight. The other proposal, that of applying to 

 " the eminent Dr Smith," was accepted and carrried out by Mr 

 Booth, as will be seen from the following letter : — 



David Booth to Sir J. E. Smith, F.R.S. 



" London, 24th January 18 14. 



" Sir, — Mr George Don, of the Botanic Garden, Forfar, was 

 for many years past my intimate friend : I also understand that 

 he was your constant correspondent. He is now no more. He 

 died on the 14th inst., of a putrid sore throat, after six weeks' 

 excruciating pain. 



" My residence is at Newburgh in Fife. I have been in 

 London these two weeks past, and the above intelligence was 

 communicated to me in a letter from Forfar. My correspon- 

 dent states further that Mr Don died in extreme poverty, 

 having been obliged during his illness to accept of the private 

 donations of friendship, which must have ill accorded with his 

 independence of mind. He has left a widow and six children, 

 four of whom are incapable of labour. Two sons (who, I sup- 

 pose, are from fifteen to sixteen years of age) have been accus- 

 tomed to work in the garden, but they are quite unfit either to 

 continue or to sell off the valuable collection of plants which it 

 contains. Indeed there is no one in that quarter that can ap- 

 preciate their value ; and what has been collected by the labour 

 of years, will most probably be thrown out as useless cumberers 

 of the ground. 



" I address you, without ceremony, as the guardian of British 

 botany, to the advancement of which Mr Don dedicated his 



