16 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
Mr. George Don was a native of Kincardineshire ; from which, 
however, his parents removed in his infancy. While yet a very 
little boy he revisited the place of his nativity ; and the clergyman 
of the parish, having called on the family with whom Don was 
residing, found the nascent student of nature busily engaged 
forming into a natural system of his own all the wild flowers which he 
had been able to cull in the neighbourhood ; upon observing which, 
the clergyman remarked, that a boy, who voluntarily entered upon 
such a course at the very dawning of life, would ultimately become 
one of the brightest and most successful naturalists of his time. 
The hint was in so far taken, from this prediction, that Don was 
bound apprentice to the gardener at Dupplin Castle, in Perthshire, 
where the gardener was a near relation of his own. While in this 
situation he devoted his leisure time to the study of the natural 
sciences, especially botany; but he was careful not to neglect his 
employment in his profession. The fact is, that, while still at that 
age at which the majority of boys addict themselves to frivolous 
sports, Don was a general and successful observer in the fields, 
and student in the closet; and he continued to be so under all the 
vicissitudes of a very varied life. The botany of the Grampians, 
and the secondary hills at their base, was a favourite study with 
him at the commencement, and continued to be so till the close of 
his life. 
After having shown at Dupplin that he was destined to become 
a botanist of the first class, he went to the south of England, in 
order to prosecute his studies in botany and the art of cultivation. 
After a short residence there he went to the continent, where he 
made a tour, chiefly with a view of knowing and comparing the 
botany and natural history of the different regions over which he 
passed ; and when his continental tour was completed, he returned 
to Forfar, along with a relation of his own. Soon after arriving at 
Forfar, he took a fancy to the establishment of a nursery and 
botanical collection of plants ; and in order to carry out this, he got 
possession of Doo Hillock, a spot remarkably well adapted for his 
purpose, from the great diversity of the soil, and consequently of 
the climate. Though of very limited extent, some parts of it are 
very elevated and dry; and the soil passes through all the gra¬ 
dations, from this to a sludgy peat bog. Consequently the soils 
best suited to every variety of British plants were found within a 
short distance of each other. While settled here he resumed 
