David Don

David Don ( born December 21, 1799 in Doo Hillock, Forfarshire, Scotland, † December 8, 1841 in London) was a British botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " D.Don ".

Life

David Don was the younger brother of the botanist George Don; both sons of George Don of Forfar. Don was in the years 1822 to 1841 Librarian of the Linnean Society in London. In the years 1836-1841 he was a professor of botany at King's College London. David Don described a number of major conifer species that have been discovered in the 19th century. The coast redwood first Taxodium sempervirens D.Don, today Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don ) Endl. , The bristlecone fir, Abies bracteata (D. Don ) A. Poit. (described as Pinus bracteata ) or the Japanese cedar Cryptomeria japonica ( Thunb. ) D. Don, he has separated from the genus Cupressus belong to. The gardens held in Tibet orchid Pleione he described in 1825 as the first. As a librarian and secretary of the botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert he made for this the Prodromus florae nepalensis together. This Flore work is based on the collections of Francis Hamilton and Nathaniel Wallich. At the later editions of Lamberts A description of the genus Pinus he contributed plant descriptions.

In 1823 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina.

Works

• Prodromus florae nepalensis, 1825

Swell

• Robert Zander, Fritz Encke, Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold (eds.): Handbook of Plant Names. 13th edition. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5.