David Douglas - botanist 1798-1834


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David Douglas 1798–1834

Scottish botanist. He made several journeys in North America between 1823 and 1834 to study American plants and sent to Scotland more than 200 plants and seeds then unknown in Europe. His journal (1914) is of historical as well as of scientific importance, because he was one of the earliest travelers in the Oregon country and in California. In 1834 he traveled to Puget Sound and the Fraser River and then went to the Hawaiian Islands. The Douglas fir, which he observed c.1825, was named for him.

Source: http://www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/D/DouglD.html

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DOUGLAS, David, botanist, born at Scone, Perthshire, Scotland, in 1798; died in the Hawaiian Islands, 12 July 1834. He was employed in the botanic garden of the University of Glasgow, where he attracted the notice of Dr. (afterward Sir William) Hooker, who procured for him an appointment as botanical collector in the United States to the Horticultural society of London. In this capacity he traveled extensively in America, extending his researches in 1824 as far as Oregon and California, exploring Columbia River and parts of California, and in 1827 traversing the continent from Fort Vancouver to Hudson bay, where he met Sir ,John Franklin, and returned with him to England, having many valuable acquisitions for English flower gardens. After a second visit, when on a similar mission to Columbia River in 1829, he went to the Hawaiian Islands, where he was killed in 1834. Through his agency 217 new species of plants were introduced into England, and he collected 800 specimens of the California flora. A gigantic species of pine, which he discovered in California, is named Pinus Douglassii.

Appletons Encyclopedia

In 1832, David Douglas, a respected Scottish botanist, was found dead in a pit dug to trap wild bullocks at Kaluakauka, in the ahupua'a (land division) of Laupahoehoe. His clothes were torn, his body mangled and ten gashes marked his head. The bull that was trapped in the pit with him officially was blamed for killing Douglas, but throughout the islands people speculated about the mysterious circumstances. Few believed that this experienced naturalist could have accidentally fallen into the pit, which he had passed previously on the trail before retracing his steps to the same area.