| Home Contents Contact |
|
|
|
|
David Douglas Memorial, Scone
In his excellent little volume, Archie Smith offers a narrative account of the life and exploits of David Douglas (1799-1834), a native of Scone, Perthshire, who, having been commissioned by the London Horticultural Society to travel to North America, went on to win renoun as a botanist and adventurer in the Far West during a sojourn there in 1825. The detailed accounts in Douglas’s journals provide a wonderful primary source of information on the customs, dress and appearance of the Cayuse, Chinook and other Indians of the Northwest in that age.
Douglas’s legacy to the Scottish landscape lives on, for a great many of the conifer species familiar on our hillsides were introduced by him from North America’s west coast and Columbia Plateau. These include the Sitka Spruce, Pinus Amabilis, Noble Fir, Grand Fir and the Douglas Fir which bears his name. Grown in great plantations, these species today form the mainstay of the Scottish timber industry.
All For A Handful of Seed -
The Life and Adventures of David Douglas,
by Archie Smith F.S.A. Scot.Published by Mr A. K. Smith, 1997
ISBN 1-900489-08-2
