George Don

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, 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. 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. 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. He is buried in the parish churchyard in the centre of Forfar.

Legacy
The plant species authored by George Don include:

Coastal Wattle Candelbra Wattle Weeping Myall, Boree Nealie Pink Periwinkle Long-scaped Isotome Prairie violet
 * Acacia cyclops G.Don
 * Acacia deltoidea G.Don
 * Acacia holosericea G.Don
 * Acacia pendula A.Cunn. ex G.Don
 * Acacia podalyriifolia G.Don
 * Acacia rigens G.Don
 * Catharanthus roseus (L.) G.Don
 * Daviesia physodes G.Don
 * Hoya latifolia G.Don
 * Isotoma scapigera (R.Br.) G.Don
 * 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

A plant genera authored by George Don is Physochlaina 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 is, according to different sources, either George Don's four-times great-grandson or a great-nephew some generations removed.

List of selected publications

 * 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
 * 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