PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
I 2 
shews the estimate then formed of his character: Some of the other boys having complained of him to 
their master, received the reply, “ I like a deevil better than a dult.” 
He continued in the gardens of the Earl of Mansfield, and passed a seven years’ apprenticeship there, 
first in the flower garden, and then in the fruit garden, and was encouraged in his taste for plants by Mr 
Beattie and Messrs R. & J. Brown, of the Perth Nursery, two good British botanists. 
Shortly after he had completed his apprenticeship at Scone, he was recommended by Mr Beattie to 
the gardener of Sir Robert Preston, of Valleyfield. Sir Robert was a botanist, and Valleyfield was at that 
time celebrated for a very select collection of plants. Here Douglas remained for two years (the last as 
foreman), and derived great advantage, not only from the opportunities of studying the living plants in the 
garden, but from having access to Sir Robert Preston’s botanical library. 
H is ambition growing with his knowledge, he next made application, and succeeding in gaining 
admission to the Botanic Gardens at Glasgow. At that time Dr Hooker was the Professor of Botany, and 
Mr Stewart Murray, Curator of the Garden. It is needless to say that, in such an improving situation, and 
under such enthusiastic and zealous lovers of nature, his cravings were not baulked, and his own good 
qualities gained him their friendship, which subsisted through life. Besides a zealous performance of his 
professional duties, he diligently attended the botanical lectures given by the Professor, and was his favourite 
companion in some distant excursions to the Plighlands and Islands of Scotland, where the Professor had an 
opportunity of observing his great activity, undaunted courage, singular abstemiousness, and energetic zeal. 
These excursions were the turning point in Douglas’ career. In these Professor Hooker had been so 
struck by his qualifications for a botanical collector, that he recommended him to Mr Sabine, then Secretary 
to the Horticultural Society, which had already begun that course of useful exploration which has been the 
means of introducing so many valuable plants into this country. Mr Sabine and the Council adopted 
Professor Hooker’s recommendation, and Douglas, in 1823, entered the service of the Horticultural Society 
as botanical collector. 
The first intention was to despatch him to China; but intelligence having been received of a rupture 
between the British and Chinese, his destination was changed, and, as a temporary occupation, he was sent 
to the United States, chiefly to secure additions of the best of the American varieties of fruit trees to the 
Society’s collection; and a large number of valuable trees were thence procured by him. 
He returned in the autumn of 1823, and in 1824 an opportunity having offered, through the Hudson’s 
Bay Company, of sending him to the Columbia River, in North-West America, to explore the surrounding 
regions, he sailed in July on that mission. 
The Hudson’s Bay Company, in those days, had two modes by which they kept up communication 
with their distant territories in North-West America: one by vessels to York Factory in Hudson’s Bay, 
whence a brigade crossed the country overland (if a continuous voyage in canoes along rivers and lakes, 
interrupted only by a few portages, can be called a land journey) ; and the other by sea, round Cape 
Horn, to the Columbia River. Douglas went by the latter, and, in the course of the long eight months’ 
voyage, had the opportunity of seeing something of the vegetation of Madeira, Rio Janeiro, Juan 
Fernandez, and the Galapago Islands, the ship having touched at these places. Of late years, however, the 
voyage is made direct to London, from Victoria, Vancouver Island (now their chief depot), the passage 
occupying about five months. 
On 7th April 1825 he landed on the shores of the Columbia, and for the next two years passed his 
time in exploring the botany of the surrounding country. His excursions during this period were chiefly 
between the shore and the Cascade Mountains, and northwards to the Spokane River. He also went 
southward into Oregon, as far as the Umpqua or Aguilar River, to procure seeds of the Sugar Pine 
(.Pinus Lambertiana). This was the most fertile period of his researches. He introduced into this 
country 165 new plants, many of them of the greatest value ; and it may truly be said that there is scarcely 
a spot deserving the name of a garden, either in Europe or the United States, in which some of his 
introductions do not form the chief attraction. 
In 
