Having completed the customary term in the ornamental department, he was removed to the forcing and kitchen garden, in the affairs of which he appeared to take as lively an interest as he had previously done in those of the flower garden. Lee's Introduction to Botany, and Donn's Catalogue, his former textbooks, if they may be so termed, were now laid aside, and Nicol's Gardener's Calendar taken in their stead. The useful publications of Mr. London, which ought to be in the hands of every young gardener, had not then made their appearance; so that his means of gaining a theoretical knowledge of his business were very limited, when compared with the facilities of the present day; but what was of more consequence to one in his situation, he had ample scope for making himself master of the practical part, and it is but justice to state that, when he had finished his apprenticeship, he only wanted age and experience in the management of men to qualify him for undertaking a situation of the first importance.
His active habits and obliging disposition gained the friendship of Mr. Beattie, by whom he was recommended to the late Mr. Alexander Stewart, gardener at Valleyfield, near Culross, the seat of the late Sir Robert Preston, a place then celebrated for a very select collection of plants. Thither David Douglas went in 1818, after having spent the preceding winter months in a private school in Perth, revising especially such rules in arithmetic as he thought might be useful, and in which he either had found or considered himself deficient. He was not long in his new situation when a fresh impulse seized him. The kitchen garden lost its attraction, and his mind became wholly bent on Botany, more specially as regarded exotic plants, of which we believe one of the very best private collections in Scotland was then cultivated at Valleyfield. Mr. Stewart finding him careful of the plants committed to his charge, and desirous of improvement, encouraged him by every means in his power. He treat him him with kindness and allowed him to participate in the advantages which he had himself derived from having
