70 THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE DON. 
He sent many specimens to Sir James E. Smith, some of which 
are figured by Sowerby in the pages of “English Botany,” and 
many of the orginal specimens are preserved in the Smithian 
Herbarium of the Linnean Society, or in the Natural History 
Museum at Cromwell Road. 
Don’s specimens are often accompanied with excellent critical 
observations which show his botanical knowledge and acumen. 
Eight letters to N. Winch, that excellent north-country botanist, 
are also preserved in the Linnean Society’s Library, and a small 
number of critical grasses still await naming in the general 
collection at Burlington House. 
Dr. Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle, was another correspondent. 
It is said that the Bishop once being at Forfar, and inquiring 
for Mr. Don, was at first directed to Colonel, afterwards General 
Sir George Don, who chanced to be passing up the street; 
the Bishop, noting the military bearing of the Colonel, said “ No, 
that cannot be the man I want,’ upon which the native said, 
“You'll want Doo Hillock,” and at once conducted him to the 
nursery, where he found the botanist hard at work at his plants, 
and with whom he was soon in cordial conversation, to the 
wonder of his guide. 
Among the common people Don was, of course, either little 
understood or perhaps misunderstood, such pursuits as his 
would be looked upon as scarcely canny, but Mr. Knox relates 
he once extorted their admiration from having been asked by a 
number of weavers the name of a small seedling at the side of a 
wall; he, having examined it by means of a lens, told them it 
was a gooseberry bush. They were sceptical, but the plant was 
removed by one of them to a garden, and eventually proved that 
Don’s naming was correct. But the more educated people in 
Forfar recognised Don’s merit, and he had the friendship of Mr. 
Dempster of Dunichen, and Dr. John Jamieson,? author of the 
“ Dictionary of the Scottish Language.” 
George Don’s principal contribution to botanical literature is 
“An Account of the Native Plants in the County of Forfar and 
1 These by the favour of the President and Council of the Linnean Society 
are published as an Appendix to this memoir.—/. B. 
* Dr. Jamieson was in Forfar from 1780-1797. aie P. Stevenson, 
Dundee. 
