74 THE LIFE AND WorRK OF GEORGE DON. 
Don had a practical knowledge of forestry and agricuiture and 
was frequently consulted by landowners as to the planting of 
their estates.! In illustration of this may be quoted the following 
communication? which appears in the “ Memoirs of the Cale- 
donian Horticultural Society,” Vol. i., 1814 :— 
“On THE VARIETIES OF THE Pinus SILvesTRiIs, OR Scots Fir. 
“By Mr. Georce Don, Forrar. 
“Communicated in a Letter to Mr. P. Neill. 
“(Read 5th March, 1811.) 
“Tam not acquainted with the latitude of subjects your Horti- 
cultural Society means to embrace; but I trust the following 
observations on the Pinus silvestris of Linnzeus, the well-known 
Scots Fir, may not be unworthy of its notice. 
“One would be apt to think that little new were to be expected 
concerning the history or qualities of a tree that is not only 
indigenous to our country, but has been cultivated among us from 
time immemorial; especially after an excellent monograph on the 
genus Pinus, by a first-rate botanist and observer, Aylmer Brook 
Lambert, Esq.; F.R.S. and a Vice-President of the Linnean Society, 
published not longer ago than the year 1803. 
“During the winter of 1810, when walking in some woods in the 
neighbourhood of Forfar, composed of Scotch Fir, for the purpose 
of collecting mosses and lichens, my attention was withdrawn from 
these humble tribes, by observing the very dissimilar appearances 
of different trees, of what botanists consider as one species of 
Pinus, the Pinus silvestris. 
“ After examining a great number of trees, I became satisfied 
that it is possible to distinguish in our plantations, at least four 
* Mr. Don of Forfar, to whom this work is under such high obligations, 
has been employed by several gentlemen, not only of this but of neighbouring 
counties, in stocking parks which are intended for permanent pasture with 
the most valuable of those grasses which are natives of the county ; and also 
in extirpating such plants as are hurtful to cattle—Headrick, General View 
of the Agriculture of the County of Angus or Forfarshtre, Libabuvoh 1813, 
4 
» Z49- 
* See also his essay on ‘‘ Indigenous Grasses,” reprinted as Appendix E 
to this Memoir, for which he was awarded in 1806 a premium by the 
Highland Society of Scotland.—/. 2. B. 
