Some Account of the late Mr. Douglas. 271 



Dutch variety (spring-sown) were in the market on Saturday last. Of potatoes 

 the supply is most abundant (of excellent quality). The demand throughout 

 the season has been so small, the price of bread being low, that a large stock 

 is remaining on hand, a great part of which will be entirely lost. The prices 

 throughout the winter have been extremely low : in some cases whole cargoes 

 (partially damaged) have been actually sold for less than their freight and 

 expenses, so that the growers must have sustained most serious loss. — G. C. 

 April 25. 1835. 



Art. VI. Biography. 



The following information respecting the deeply lamented botanist, Dou- 

 glas, will, we are sure, be read with great interest. It is from the West Briton 

 and Cornwall Advertiser newspaper, and evidently from the pen of Mr. William 

 Beattie Booth, A. L, S., now residing in that part of the country, Mr. Dou- 

 glas's townsman and intimate friend. We still hope that farther particulars 

 will be published, including " the interesting Journal of his Travels," alluded 

 to in the article below, with whatever information may arrive with his effects, 

 now on their way to this country : — 



Mr. Douglas, the Botanist. — The intelligence of the death of this enter- 

 prising traveller and botanist will be read with feelings of the deepest regret, 

 by every one acquainted with the eminent services he has rendered to botany, 

 and other branches of natural history, in the course of the last twelve years. 

 His name, in fact, is associated with all the rare and beautiful plants lately 

 introduced from North-west America, which, by means of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, have been extensively distributed not only in Britain, but 

 over Europe. To him we are indebted for the elegant clarkia, the different 

 species of pentstemons, lupines, Oenotheras, ribeses, and a host of other orna- 

 mental plants which now adorn our gardens, and which have formed the great 

 attraction of the several botanical publications wherein they have been figured 

 and described. 



Mr. Douglas was born at Scone, near Perth, and served his apprenticeship 

 as a gardener in the gardens of the Earl of Mansfield. About the year 1817 

 he removed to Valleyfield, the seat of Sir Robert Preston, Bart., then cele- 

 brated for a choice collection of exotics, and shortly afterwards went to the 

 Botanic Garden of Glasgow. Here his fondness for plants attracted the no- 

 tice of Dr. Hooker, the professor of botany, whom he accompanied in his 

 excursions through the Western Highlands, and assisted in collecting materials 

 for the Flora Scotica with which Dr. Hooker was then engaged. This gentle- 

 man recommended him to the late secretary of the Horticultural Society, Jo- 

 seph Sabine, Esq., as a botanical collector j and in 1823 he was despatched to 

 the United States, where he procured many fine plants, and greatly increased 

 the Society's collection of fruit trees. He returned in the autumn of the 

 same year ; and in 1824 an opportunity having offered, through the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, of sending him to explore the botanical riches of the country 

 adjoining the Columbia river, and southwards towards California, he sailed in 

 July for the purpose of prosecuting this mission. In one of his letters, now 

 before us, he thus speaks on leaving England : — "I had a fine passage down 

 the channel, and cleared the Land's End on the 1st of August. The day was 

 warm, with a clear sky ; the evening cool and pleasant. I stood on deck 

 looking on the rocky shores of Cornwall, burnished with the splendour of a 

 setting sun — a noble scene. By degrees the goddess of night threw her veil 

 over it, and my delightful view of happy England closed — probably closed for 

 ever !" 



While the vessel touched at Rio de Janeiro, he collected many rare orchi- 

 deous plants and bulbs. Among the latter was a new species of Gesnena, 

 which Mr. Sabine named, in honour of its discoverer, G. Douglas/i. He was 

 enraptured with the rich vegetation of a tropical country. He stopped at Rio 

 longer than he anticipated, and left it with regret. In the course of his voyage 

 round Cape Horn he shot many curious birds peculiar to the southern hemi- 



