272 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
specimen is still at Chiswick, and other Chinese plants— 
peonies, roses, and chrysanthemums—were received there 
about the same time. The first collector sent out by the 
Society was George Don, who went to West Africa, and on to 
South America, in 1822-23. He was born in 1798, and died 
in 1856, and was son of George Don, of Forfar, and brother of 
David Don, who were also both botanists. John Forbes was 
sent to East Africa the same year ; he died while going up the 
Zambesi, but not before he had despatched home many new 
species. John Potts, who went in search of plants in China 
and the East Indies, also died from the effects of the climate. 
John Dampier Parks followed him to China in 1823, and found 
a number of plants there, and James Roe searched successfully 
in America and the Sandwich Islands. The well-known 
collector, David Douglas, was also employed by the Horticul¬ 
tural Society. He was born at Scone in 1799, and as a lad 
came under the notice of Sir William Hooker, then Professor 
at Glasgow. Hooker recommended him to Joseph Sabine, the 
Secretary of the Society, and Douglas was sent out to North 
America and California. The wealth of plants there discovered 
by him was unprecedented, flowers as well as trees. The 
number of conifers he sent home was so astonishing he wrote 
on one occasion to Hooker : “You will begin to think that I 
manufacture Pines at my pleasure.” Besides the well-known 
Douglas pine ( Pseudotsuga {Abies) Douglasii), he enriched this 
country with many others— Pinus Lambertiana, Pinus insignis, 
Pinus ponderosa , Pinus Sabiniana, Abies (. Picea) nobilis, Pinus 
grandis, the beautiful Taxodium sempervirens —and many more 
which now adorn Pine turns and woods in all parts of England. 
At Dropmore there is a Douglas pine grown from seed given by 
the Horticultural Society to Lord Grenville in 1827. The tree 
was planted out in 1830, and in 1886 was 124 feet high, with 
a girth of 15 feet. Besides these wonderful conifers, Douglas 
sent home many other plants, 1 among them the red-flowering 
Ribes, now so common, also Calochorti, Clarkias, Gaillardias, 
Godetias, Collinsias, Lupines, Eschscholtzias, Mimuli, and 
Pentstemons. He introduced altogether 217 new species. 
1 The plants are described by Hooker, Flora Boreali Americana, and 
in the Botanical Magazine . 
