APPENDIX B.—DISCOVERIES. 143 
of Linnzeus in his possession), had not the same natural apprecia- 
tion of minute differences, nor that intuitive power of grasping the 
relationship of species which Don himself shows, and he lacked 
just that discriminating power which is only given to the full to 
those who work with untiring zeal among living specimens. This 
work of Don’s was of the most unsparing kind, and was done, as 
so often it is obliged to be done, against adverse influences, 
and without the advantages of rank and fortune, but with the 
compensating assets which untiring zeal and patient industry, and 
the inborn touch of genius give to any of Nature’s children who 
have been enriched with its heritage—that something with which 
no worldly gifts can endow us in a similar way. Don unmistakably 
was so gifted, and it kept him steadfast at his labours. He had 
besides that talent of discriminating slight differences which is 
lacking to many systematic botanists ; but none can be truly great 
who is not its possessor. This discriminating power is evidenced 
again and again in his acute remarks upon his specimens. 
As I have said, Don was too independent in opinion to curry 
favour with the wealthy, and too fond of Nature—by which I 
mean Science in the truest sense, hard mistress in-some respects as 
she is to the poor—to make himself, by continuous application, a 
successful man of business. George Don is an instance—and 
there are many in the working-classes—of a life devoted to one 
idea ; heroes assuredly, yet reaping no reward, except such reward 
as earnest and true work done for its own sake confers. 
In the case of Don, some of us, and assuredly all who have 
trodden over the same tovely country which he has made known to 
us, and who have gathered in the same localities the rare and 
beautiful specimens he discovered or has left records of, will feel 
not only gratitude for what his labours have gained for us and 
made our common possession, but also respect for the independ- 
ent and sturdy character of the man who lived such a life of toil 
and endurance. ‘ 
