72 THE LIFE AND WoRK OF GEORGE DON. 
Don, who, we understand, has surmounted many difficulties in 
following out his favourite pursuit, and in forming so extensive and 
curious a collection of living plants. The whole of the plants are 
of a hardy sort, Mr. Don not possessing either green-house or stove 
for the protection of such as are tender. It isin alpine plants and 
in hardy perennials, and annuals, that the Forfar garden excels. 
The garden is situated on a bank which slopes down to the lake of 
Forfar, not far from the town; and it fortunately includes a great 
variety of soils, from dry to peat bog. No place could be found 
more favourable for alpines and aquatics, which are in general 
found to be of rather difficult cultivation, but which flourish here 
as in their native habitats. . . . To give some idea of the extent of the 
collection, I shall mention the number of species of several genera 
which are at present growing in the garden. Of the genus Veronica, 
there are 55 species, of Sa/via 50 species, Campanula 44, Allium 40, 
Saxifraga 46—some of the rarest ones, as S. cesia, S. petrea, S. 
rivularis, etc.; Dianthus about 20 species, Cucubalus 13—being the 
whole ever cultivated in Britain ; Sz/ene nearly 50, Fumaria 14, the 
genera Ononts, Lathyrus, Vicia almost complete, Astragalus 40 
species, 77ifolium, no fewer than 69, Hieracium 44. It were 
needless to enumerate more. The botanist will form a due estimate 
of this collection on being told that he may see here upwards of 60 
species of Carex, flourishing in great perfection. The agriculturist 
may here find the whole of the hardy Gramina, carefully dis- 
tinguished and arranged, amounting to over 1ookinds. This season 
r. Don has introduced several hundred species of hardy plants, 
most of which we are told have never before been cultivated in 
Scotland. Among the rare British plants at present in flower in 
this garden may be mentioned the elegant little grass called Knappia 
agrostidea (Agrostis minima of Smith)and the Holosteum umbellatum. 
Among the hardy exotics now in flower, the Panax quinquefola 
(the root of which constitutes the famous panacea of China called 
ginseng) is most remarkable. There are certainly very few living 
specimens of the plant in Scotland ; and we have not before heard 
of its flowering in this country. The Dalebarda fragarioides, brought 
from North America to France by Michaux and only lately imported 
into Britain, has already found its way into Mr. Don’s collection. 
It is entirely a new plant, belonging to the Icosandria Polygynia, 
and naturally allied to the Geums. 
“The Forfar garden, it must, however, in conclusion, be confessed, 
makes very little external show, being in a great measure destitute 
of the ornament which arises from neat alleys with hedges or 
