George Don (29 April 1798 – 25 February 1856) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector.
Life and career
George Don was born at Doo Hillock,
Forfar
Forfar (; , ) 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 had a population of 16,280.
The town ...
,
Angus
Angus may refer to:
*Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland
* Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario
Animals
* Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle
Media
* ...
, 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 in 1816. In 1821, he was sent to Brazil, the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
and
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
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 ...
.
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 large genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with around 1000 accepted species, making ''Allium'' the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae and among the largest plant genera in the world. Many of the species are edible, ...
'' (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 Tropics, tropical and southern Africa, about 5 to Madagascar ...
''. He died at
Kensington
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around 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 by Kensingt ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, 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'' G.Don
Coastal Wattle
* ''
Acacia deltoidea'' G.Don
* ''
Acacia holosericea'' G.Don
Candelbra Wattle
* ''
Acacia pendula'' A.Cunn. ex G.Don
Weeping Myall, Boree
* ''
Acacia podalyriifolia'' G.Don
* ''
Acacia rigens'' G.Don
Nealie
* ''
Catharanthus roseus'' (
L.) G.Don
Pink Periwinkle
* ''
Daviesia physodes'' G.Don
* ''
Hoya latifolia'' G.Don
* ''
Isotoma scapigera
''Isotoma scapigera'', commonly known as long-scaped isotome, is a small herbaceous plant in the family ''Campanulaceae
The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of ...
'' (
R.Br.) G.Don
Long-scaped Isotome
* ''
Lagunaria patersonia'' (
Andrews Andrews may refer to:
Places Australia
*Andrews, Queensland
*Andrews, South Australia
United States
*Andrews, Florida (disambiguation), various places
*Andrews, Indiana
*Andrews, Nebraska
*Andrews, North Carolina
*Andrews, Oregon
*Andrews, South ...
) G.Don
* ''
Ludwigia hyssopifolia'' (G.Don) Exell
* ''
Modiola caroliniana'' (
L.) G.Don
* ''
Physochlaina orientalis'' (
M.Bieb.) G.Don
* ''
Psittacanthus calyculatus'' (
DC.) G.Don
* ''
Sagina maritima'' G.Don
* ''
Sphenotoma squarrosum'' (
R.Br.) G.Don
* ''
Swainsona formosa
''Swainsona formosa'', commonly known as Sturt's desert pea or Sturt pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is native to all continental states and the Northern Territory of Australia, with the exception of Victoria. It ...
'' (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) al ...
'' 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 an English horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series '' Gardeners' World''.
Born in Germany and rai ...
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
See also
*
List of Australian plant species authored by George Don
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Don, George
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
Scottish plant collectors
People from Angus, Scotland
19th-century Scottish writers
19th-century Scottish male writers
19th-century Scottish botanists
Scottish taxonomists