George Don (29 April 1798 – 25 February 1856) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector.
George Don | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 April 1798 |
| Died | 25 February 1856 (aged 57) Kensington, London, England |
| Known for | A General System of Gardening and Botany |
| Parent(s) | Caroline Clementina Stuart and George Don |
| Relatives | David Don (brother) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | Royal Horticultural Society |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | G.Don |
Life and career
editGeorge Don was born at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland on 29 April 1798 to Caroline Clementina Stuart and George Don (b.1756), principal gardener of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1802.[1] Don was the elder brother of David Don, also a botanist. He became foreman of the gardens at Chelsea in 1816. In 1821, he was sent to Brazil, the West Indies and Sierra Leone to collect specimens for the Royal Horticultural Society.[1] Most of his discoveries were published by 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 (1832) and a review of Combretum. He died at Kensington, London, on 25 February 1856.[1] He is buried in the parish churchyard in the centre of Forfar.
Legacy
editThe 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 (R.Br.) G.Don
Long-scaped Isotome - Lagunaria patersonia (Andrews) 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 (G.Don) Joy Thomps.
- Viola pedatifida G.Don
Prairie violet
A plant genera authored by George Don is Physochlaina G.Don[3]
He is also honoured in the genus of a plant, Donella,[4] which was published in Hist. Pl. Vol.11 o page 294 in 1891.[5]
The television gardener Monty Don is, according to different sources, either George Don's four-times great-grandson or a great-nephew some generations removed.[6][7]
List of selected publications
edit- Don, George (1832). "A monograph of the genus Allium". Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society. 6: 1–102.
- — (1831). A general history of the dichlamydeous plants: comprising complete descriptions of the different orders...the whole arranged according to the natural system IV vols. London: J.G. and F. Rivington.[8]
- 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
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004). "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. ref:odnb/7792. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7792. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ International Plant Names Index. G.Don.
- ^ "Physochlaina G.Don | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. S2CID 187926901. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "Donella Pierre ex Baill. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
- ^ Horton, Helena (15 June 2019). "Monty Don reveals his family's 170-year-old feud with the Royal Horticultural Society". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Although the Telegraph article identifies Monty Don's "great-great-great-great grandfather George Don", a representative of the Royal Horticultural Society is quoted as saying "we [...] are delighted to work closely with Monty Don who is a descendent of another branch of the Don family tree, one that features many gardeners and botanists"; this implied less-direct relationship to George Don corroborates the following cited source- Presenter: Monty Don (29 November 2015). "The 19th Century". The Secret History of the British Garden. BBC Two.
- ^ George Don A general history of the dichlamydeous plants: comprising complete descriptions of the different orders...the whole arranged according to the natural system IV (1831) at Google Books
Bibliography
edit- Hall, Norman (1978). Botanists of the Eucalypts. CSIRO, Melbourne. ISBN 0-643-00271-5.