142 THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE DON. 
geography of Scotland was imperfectly known, so that Don was 
often very vague in his localities, and this cannot be wondered at ; 
and if, as sometimes occurred, he gave them from memory, another 
source of error is opened. Then, too, Don was a florist, and a 
florist in poor circumstances, and it is quite conceivable that he 
may, in some instances, Have intentionally withheld the exact 
locality from business motives, so that another in the same trade 
should not take toll. And it must also be borne in mind that when 
he lived no British botanist had any but the most elementary 
knowledge as to the indigenity of plants. We notice that even 
in such a standard work as “ English Botany” a large number of 
species are inserted which have no claims to be considered natives 
of Britain, although found growing in a wild state; and this is 
even true of Sir W. J. Hooker’s “ Flora Scotica.”. We therefore 
need not be surprised to find Don recording such alien plants as 
Hypericum barbatum, Cherophyllum aureum, and, because he 
found them wild, thinking them to be native. Then Don brought 
home many specimens, either in seed, root, or flower, and grew 
them in his garden; and anyone who is conversant with the 
difficulties under which all botanical gardens labour in the shape of 
misplaced labels, the encroachment of one species upon the domain 
of another,* in the case of annuals by seed-scattering, or of 
perennials by root-creeping, need not be surprised to find that 
Don, poor and overworked as. he was, may, with three hundred 
British species in his Forfar garden, have fallen a victim to the 
unconscious transference of labels or specimens, and perhaps his 
memory at times, especially in later years, proved treacherous. To 
one or other of these causes may, I think, be attributed the records 
of such plants as Potentilla tridentata and Tussilago alpina. On the 
other hand, we must remember with gratitude the enormous energy 
which enabled him to add such a lengthy list of species to his 
country’s flora. 
This lengthy list of Don’s discoveries contains such a number of 
new species, and such great rarities, and comprises so many 
critical forms, that it would be difficult to find one to rival it; and 
it places Don in the first rank of workers in the same field of 
research. We have seen again and again that Don’s instincts 
were correct, but that Smith, then the acknowledged head of 
British botanists (and notwithstanding the great advantages he 
possessed in having an extensive foreign herbarium and the types 
1 See Dr. Neill’s description of Don’s garden, on p. 72.—/. B. B, 
