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.

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