1912-13.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 157 



never very far away from that world of living, grow- 

 ing, and breathing things, which was meat and drink 

 to his nature. And then there was the Windmill Brae on 

 the north side of the Overgate, stretching northwards to 

 the Ward Road or Meadows, of which the only survival 

 now is a " Windmill Close " in the Overgate. 



The Brae is long since quarried away, and the quarry 

 which in the younger days of some of us was the home 

 of shows and hobby-horses, is now quite obliterated b} T 

 buildings in which the " Courier " offices lately occupied a 

 principal part. The ground, in the earlier years of last 

 century, was a favourite site for gardens, and gave oppor- 

 tunity for the cultivation of botanical and horticultural 

 tastes. One William Lennox, a working shoemaker, had a 

 garden there, and cultivated, with extraordinary success, the 

 plants he gathered in the fields and woods of the neighbour- 

 hood. This Lennox, according to a note by Gardiner in 

 " Loudon's Magazine of Natural History," was the first to 

 breed the siskin in captivity, and he figures in Decandolle's 

 " Geographie Botanique Raisonnee " (1855) as having 

 introduced the showy Mimulus luteus into this part of the 

 country. Mr A. C. Lamb in his " Old Dundee " speaks of 

 the Windmill Brae retaining its rural character so long that 

 in 1820 it was still a favourite place for strolling on summer 

 Sabbath mornings. In a herbarium belonging to his uncle 

 Douglas Gardiner, which was formed in 1813, and came 

 into Gardiner's hands (fragments of it being still extant), 

 specimens were included which either grew wild or were 

 cultivated on this same Windmill Brae. In that old 

 herbarium are specimens of plants given to Gardiner's 

 father and uncle by George Don of Forfar, with whom 

 both men were acquainted, and had occasionally botanised 

 together. 1 And this leads one to associate Gardiner with 

 a sort of apostolic succession — the younger man maintain- 

 ing and developing the tastes and tendencies of his forebears. 

 He was born in this Overgate, 13th July 1808— not 1809, 

 as has generally been stated. He himself writes a propos 



1 Visiting George Don at Forfar, Gardiner's father and uncle were much 

 attracted by some fine plants of Hippuris vulgaris in Forfar loch. How 

 to obtain specimens was giving them some consideration, when Don 

 solved the problem by simply walking into the loch for them ! 



