272 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



specimen is still at Chiswick, and other Chinese plants — 

 peonies, roses, and chrysanthemums — were received there 

 about the same time. The first collector sent out by the 

 Society was George Don, who went to West Africa, and on to 

 South America, in 1822-23. He was bom in 1798, and died 

 in 1856, and was son of George Don, of Forfar, and brother of 

 David Don, who were also both botanists, John Forbes was 

 sent to East Africa the same year ; he died while going up the 

 Zambesi, but not before he had despatched home many new 

 species. John Potts, who went in search of plants in China 

 and the East Indies, also died from the effects of the climate. 

 John Dampier Parks followed him to China in 1823, a-^d found 

 a number of plants there, and James Roe searched successfully 

 in America and the Sandwich Islands. The well-known 

 collector, David Douglas, was also employed by the Horticul- 

 tural Society. He was born at Scone in 1799, and as a lad 

 came under the notice of Sir William Hooker, then Professor 

 at Glasgow. Hooker recommended him to Joseph Sabine, the 

 Secretary of the Society, and Douglas was sent out to North 

 America and California. The wealth of plants there discovered 

 by him was unprecedented, flowers as well as trees. The 

 number of conifers he sent home was so astonishing he wrote 

 on one occasion to Hooker : " You will begin to think that I 

 manufacture Pines at my pleasure." Besides the well-known 

 Douglas pine {Pseudotsuga (Abies) Douglasii), he enriched this 

 country with many others — Pinus Lamhertiana, Pinus insignis, 

 Pinus ponderosa, Pinus Sahiniana, Abies (Picea) nobilis, Pinus 

 grandis, the beautiful Taxodium sempervirens — and many more 

 which now adorn Pinetums and woods in all parts of England. 

 At Dropmore there is a Douglas pine grown from seed given by 

 the Horticultural Society to Lord Grenville in 1827. The tree 

 was planted out in 1830, and in 1886 was 124 feet high, with 

 a girth of 15 feet. Besides these wonderful conifers, Douglas 

 sent home many other plants,^ among them the red-flowering 

 Ribes, now so common, also Calochorti, Clarkias, Gaillardias, 

 Godetias, Collinsias, Lupines, Eschscholtzias, Mimuli, and 

 Pentstemons. He introduced altogether 217 new species. 



* The plants are described by Hooker, Flora Boreali Americana, and 

 in the Botanical Magazine. 



