POSTSCRIPT. 285 
I will some day soon look over all the plants first discovered by my 
father, and give you a list of those that have not since been 
rediscovered 
And believe me to be remaining Yours sincerely, 
G 
EORGE Don. 
Dr, Neill. 
In the light of this correspondence and its statements conflicting 
with some of those in the Memoir, we must conclude that at the pre- 
sent time our data are quite insufficient for the compilation of an 
accurate story of George Don’s early life. It will be observed that 
the son does not answer Dr. Neill’s direct question regarding the date 
of his father’s birth, he conjectures the place was Dundee, and after 
giving a detailed account of his father’s training and visit to London 
admits, when Dr, Neill doubts it, that much of it came from his 
father’s cousin, with whom he is not prepared altogether to agree. 
It is evident that Dr. Neill’s biographical notice, written in his later 
years and long after the events to which it refers, drew largely for 
its information upon the letter given above of George Don’s son. 
It has been stated! that a movement was begun in the middle of 
last century to collect funds for the purpose of erecting a monument 
to George Don, and we find Dr. Neill referring to this in his letter 
to George Don’s son. Amongst papers of the late Mr. James 
M‘Nab, to which his daughter has kindly granted me access, is the 
manuscript of a short communication intended for presentation to 
the Botanical Society of Edinburgh at its meeting in February, 
1851—it may not have been read, for there is no notice of it in the 
minutes of the Society—in which he gives definite form to the 
general desire of botanists that a monument should be erected. 
There is no record of how far this movement went, but the following 
letters, which are printed by permission of Miss M‘Nab, show that 
enquiries were made as to the position of Don’s grave and the 
possibility of placing a monument in Forfar Churchyard :— 
George Henderson (Nurseryman, Brechin) to James M‘Nab. 
Den Nursery, 
Brechin, 17 January 1851. 
r Sir,—We were speaking last year, on the very subject of 
your letter, to an old Gardener in rake a particular acquaintance 
of the late Mr. George Dons and who accompanied him on many 
his excursions in search of ‘plants in this and the neighbouring 
1 See page 88, footnote 3, of the Memoir in these “Notes.” 
