George Don (29 April 1798 – 25 February 1856) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector.

Life and career

The grave of George Don, Forfar parish churchyard

George Don was born at Doo Hillock,

Forfar, Angus Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a pop ...

, Scotland on 29 April 1798 to Caroline Clementina Stuart and George Don (b.1756), principal gardener of the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

in 1802. Don was the elder brother of

David Don David Don (21 December 1799 – 15 December 1841) was a Scottish botanist. Biography David Don was born on 21 December 1799 at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland to Caroline Clementina Stuart, and her husband George Don of Forfar. His olde ...

, also a botanist. He became foreman of the gardens at

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in 1816. In 1821, he was sent to Brazil, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

and

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

to collect specimens for the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

. Most of his discoveries were published by

Joseph Sabine Joseph Sabine FRS ( ; 6 June 1770 – 24 January 1837) was an English lawyer, naturalist and writer on horticulture. Life and work Sabine was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Tewin, Hertfordshire, the eldest son of Joseph Sabine ...

, although Don published several new species from Sierra Leone. Don's main work was his four volume ''A General System of Gardening and Botany'', published between 1832 and 1838 (often referred to as Gen. Hist., an abbreviation of the alternative title: ''A General History of the Dichlamydeous Plants''). He revised the first supplement to Loudon's ''Encyclopaedia of Plants'', and provided a Linnean arrangement to Loudon's ''Hortus Britannicus''. He also wrote a monograph on the genus ''

Allium ''Allium'' is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants that includes hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. The generic name ''Allium'' is the Latin word for garlic,Gledhill, Davi ...

'' (1832) and a review of ''

Combretum ''Combretum'', the bushwillows or combretums, make up the type genus of the family Combretaceae. The genus comprises about 272 species of trees and shrubs, most of which are native to tropical and southern Africa, about 5 to Madagascar, but th ...

''. He died at

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, on 25 February 1856. He is buried in the parish churchyard in the centre of Forfar.

Legacy

The plant species authored by George Don include: * ''

Acacia cyclops ''Acacia cyclops'', commonly known as coastal wattle, cyclops wattle, one-eyed wattle, red-eyed wattle, redwreath acacia, western coastal wattle, rooikrans, rooikrans acacia, is a coastal shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae. Native to Au ...

'' G.Don
Coastal Wattle * '' Acacia deltoidea'' G.Don * ''

Acacia holosericea ''Acacia holosericea'' is a shrub native to tropical and inland northern Australia. It is commonly known as soapbush wattle, soapbush, strap wattle, candelabra wattle, silver wattle and silky wattle. Description The shrub has a spreading habit ...

'' G.Don
Candelbra Wattle * ''

Acacia pendula ''Acacia pendula'', commonly known as the weeping myall, true myall, myall, silver-leaf boree, boree, and nilyah, is a species of wattle, which is native to Australia. The 1889 book ''The Useful Native Plants of Australia'' records that common ...

'' A.Cunn. ex G.Don
Weeping Myall, Boree * ''

Acacia podalyriifolia ''Acacia podalyriifolia'' is a perennial tree which is fast-growing and widely cultivated. It is native to Australia but is also naturalised in Malaysia, Africa, India and South America. Its uses include environmental management and it is al ...

'' G.Don * '' Acacia rigens'' G.Don
Nealie * ''

Catharanthus roseus ''Catharanthus roseus'', commonly known as bright eyes, Cape periwinkle, graveyard plant, Madagascar periwinkle, old maid, pink periwinkle, rose periwinkle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native and endemic to M ...

'' ( L.) G.Don
Pink Periwinkle * ''

Daviesia physodes ''Daviesia physodes'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to near-coastal areas of south-western Western Australia. It is an open shrub with verically flattened or tapering, sharply-pointed phyllodes, and yellow ...

'' G.Don * ''

Isotoma scapigera ''Isotoma scapigera'', commonly known as long-scaped isotome, is a small herbaceous plant in the family ''Campanulaceae'' native to Western Australia. The erect, annual herb typically grows to a height of . It blooms between September and Decem ...

'' ( R.Br.) G.Don
Long-scaped Isotome * ''

Lagunaria patersonia ''Lagunaria patersonia'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, c ...

'' ( Andrews) G.Don * ''

Ludwigia hyssopifolia ''Ludwigia hyssopifolia'', called seedbox and linear leaf water primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Ludwigia'', native to the New World Tropics and widely introduced to the rest of the world's tropics. A serious weed of rice ...

'' (G.Don) Exell * ''

Modiola caroliniana ''Modiola'' is a monotypic genus of plants in the mallow family containing the single species ''Modiola caroliniana'', which is known by several common names including bristly-fruited mallow, Carolina bristlemallow, babosilla, and redflower mall ...

'' ( L.) G.Don * ''

Physochlaina orientalis ''Physochlaina'' is a small genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, found principally in the north-western provinces of China (and regions adjoining these in the Himalaya and Central Asia) al ...

'' (

M.Bieb. Baron Friedrich August Marschall von Bieberstein (30 July 1768 in Stuttgart – 28 June 1826 in Merefa) was an early explorer of the flora and archeology of the southern portion of Imperial Russia, including the Caucasus and Novorossiya. He c ...

) G.Don * ''

Psittacanthus calyculatus '' Psittacanthus calyculatus'', (''erva de passerinho''), is a species of Neotropical mistletoe in the family Loranthaceae, native to Colombia, Mexico, the Mexican Gulf, and Venezuela. Description ''Psittacanthus calyculatus'' is hairless, wi ...

'' (

DC. Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle ...

) G.Don * ''

Sagina maritima ''Sagina maritima'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name sea pearlwort. It is found throughout Europe, Southwest Asia, North Africa, the Canary Islands and the Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather ...

'' G.Don * '' Sphenotoma squarrosum'' ( R.Br.) G.Don * '' Swainsona formosa'' (G.Don) Joy Thomps. * '' Viola pedatifida'' G.Don
Prairie violet A plant genera authored by George Don is ''

Physochlaina ''Physochlaina'' is a small genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, found principally in the north-western provinces of China (and regions adjoining these in the Himalaya and Central Asia) ...

'' G.Don He is also honoured in the genus of a plant, '' Donella'', which was published in Hist. Pl. Vol.11 o page 294 in 1891. The television gardener

Monty Don Montagu Denis Wyatt Don (born George Montagu Don; 8 July 1955) is a British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series '' Gardeners' World''. Born in Germany and rais ...

is, according to different sources, either George Don's four-times great-grandson or a great-nephew some generations removed.

List of selected publications

* * George Don
''A general system of gardening and botany. Founded upon Miller's Gardener's dictionary, and arranged according to the natural system''. 1831–1838
* Biography of The Scottish Botanist George Don 1764–1814, His Life, Times, and Contemporaries, by Scottish Author Marilyn Reid, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scottish-Botanist-George-Don-1764-1814/dp/1492192619

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Don, George Scottish botanists Scottish gardeners Scottish horticulturists 1798 births 1856 deaths Scottish garden writers Scottish encyclopedists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Botanical collectors active in Australia Plant collectors People from Angus, Scotland 19th-century Scottish writers 19th-century British botanists

Life and career

Legacy

List of selected publications

See also

References

Bibliography