Obituary : Professor Don. 397 



OBITUARY :— PROFESSOR DON. 



It is our melancholy duty to record in the present Number 

 the death of our able and estimable colleague Professor Don, 

 which took place at the house of the Linnaean Society in 

 Soho Square, on Wednesday the 8th of December. 



The brief account of this distinguished naturalist and 

 amiable man which we subjoin is from an Edinburgh Journal, 

 from the pen, we believe, of one of his early friends, and may 

 be acceptable to our readers until an ampler tribute to his 

 memory can be furnished. 



" He was the second son of the late Mr. George Don, whom some 

 of our readers will remember as long the Curator of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Leith-walk. Mr. David Don came to London in 

 1819, bringing with him letters of introduction from his friend Dr. 

 Neill to the celebrated Robert Brown. This gentleman soon per- 

 ceived and duly appreciated the merits of the young Scotch botanist, 

 and through his powerful recommendation he was successively ap- 

 pointed Keeper of the Lambertiar* Herbarium and Librarian to the 

 Linnaean Society. In 1821 he accompanied Dr. Neill to Paris, and 

 thus formed acquaintance with some of the most eminent continental 

 naturalists, among whom were Humboldt, Cuvier, and Delessert. 



" Mr. Don's ' Prodromus Florae Nepalensis,' and various excellent 

 papers in the Linnaean Transactions having brought him promi- 

 nently into notice in the botanical world, he was chosen Professor of 

 Botany in King's College, London, and commenced his first course 

 of lectures there in May 1836." 



In Mr. Don the Editors of these 'Annals' have had a most 

 able coadjutor, since he was distinguished no less for his skill 

 in systematic and descriptive botany than for his ample ac- 

 quaintance with the vast and well-cultivated field of vegetable 

 physiology. It was in consequence of his spontaneous and 

 disinterested offer of assistance, dictated at once by his zeal 

 for science and his friendly disposition, that the Botanical de- 

 partment was committed to his superintendence, and he was 

 anxious to continue his aid as long as his declining strength 

 permitted. This he was enabled to do until a late period 

 from the readiness with which the editorial labours have been 

 shared by some of our botanical friends. Among these we 

 are bound especially to express our thanks to Mr. Bennett^ 

 Mr. Babington, Mr. Leighton, and the Rev. Mr. Berkeley, for 

 their kind and able assistance. 



The following is as complete a list of Mr. Don's writings as we 

 are at present enabled to give : — t 



Descriptions of several new or rare native Plants, found in Scotland, 

 chiefly by the late Mr. George Don of Forfar. (Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. 

 Soc, vol. iii. 1821.) 



