CHAP. II. BRITISH ISLANDS. 123 
appears by the catalogue, before referred to, of plants sold in 
1806, in which several species of Lyonéa are mentioned. Mr. 
Lyon, it is believed, died in 1818. 
David Douglas was born at Scone, near Perth, and served 
his apprenticeship, as a gardener, in the gardens of the Earl of 
Mansfield. About the year 1817 he removed to Valleyfield, 
the seat of Sir Robert Preston, Bart., then celebrated for a 
choice collection of exotics, and shortly afterwards went to the 
Botanic Garden of Glasgow. Here his fondness for plants 
attracted the notice of Dr. Heoker, the professor of botany, 
whom he accompanied in his excursions through the Western 
Highlands, and assisted in collecting materials for the Flora 
Scotica, with which Dr. Hooker was then engaged. This gentle- 
man recommended him to the late secretary of the Horticultural 
Society, Joseph Sabine, Esq., as a botanical collector; and in 
1823 he was despatched to the United States, where he pro- 
cured many fine plants, and greatly increased the Society’s 
collection of fruit trees. He returned in the autumn of the same 
year; and in 1824 an opportunity having offered, through the 
Hudson’s Bay Company, of sending him to explore the botanical 
riches of the country adjoining the Columbia river, and south- 
wards towards California, he sailed in July for the purpose of 
prosecuting this mission. 
While the vessel touched at Rio de Janeiro, he collected 
many rare orchideous plants and bulbs. Among the latter was 
a new species of Gesnéria, which Mr. Sabine named, in honour 
of its discoverer, G. Douglas?7. He was enraptured with the 
rich vegetation of a tropical country; he stopped at Rio longer 
than he anticipated, and left it with regret. In the course of his 
voyage round Cape Horn he shot many curious birds peculiar 
to the southern hemisphere, and prepared them for sending 
home. On Christmas-day he reached the celebrated island of 
Juan Fernandez, which he describes as “an enchanting spot, 
very fertile, and delightfully wooded. I sowed a large collection 
of garden seeds, and expressed a wish they might prosper, and 
add to the comfort of some future Robinson Crusoe, should one 
appear.” He arrived at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, on 
the 7th’ of April, 1825. Here an extensive field presented itself 
to him; and the excellent manner in which he performed his 
duty to the Horticultural Society cannot be better exemplified 
than by referring to the vast collections of seeds which from time 
to time he transmitted home, along with dried specimens, beauti- 
fully preserved, and now forming part of the herbarium in the 
garden of the Society at Chiswick. Of the genus Pinus he dis- 
covered several species, some of which attain to an enormous 
size. The Pinus Lambertédna, which he named in compliment 
to Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq., vice-president of the Linneean 
