1912-13.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 163 



An influence and help all for good came to him from a 

 humble tailor in the Scouring Burn. This was William 

 Jackson, another interesting personality of these times. 

 Jackson was a good all-round naturalist, although devot- 

 ing himself principally to ornithology. He had in his 

 house an extensive natural history collection, prepared by 

 himself. There is in existence a copy of a quaint circular 

 issued by him, in which he offers " Private instruction in 

 the best methods of preserving and mounting animals for 

 cabinets and museums." which "would be particularly useful 

 to those who were going abroad." 



In after years Jackson became curator of the Watt In- 

 stitution Museum, and after his death was succeeded there 

 by his son. who was an even more able naturalist than his 

 father, but who died very young. 1 The elder Jackson had 

 an excellent library, and to this Gardiner had free access ; 

 and it is pleasant to know that what the father did for 

 Gardiner, he in his turn did for Jackson's son. In a boyi>h 

 letter I have seen, the younger Jackson writes Gardiner, 

 telling him how much pleasure he was receiving from the 

 botany he had taught him. The Jacksons were Unitarians, 

 and through them Gardiner came in contact with the Rev. 

 William Smith, the first regular Unitarian minister in 

 Dundee since the able and unfortunate Thomas Fyshe 

 Palmer in 1793. 2 Mr. Smith was well versed in natural 

 history, and had a special fondness for work with the micro- 

 scope. He became an F.L.S. in LS47. and when he died in 

 1857 was Professor of Natural History in Queen's College, 

 Cork. He is well known by his "Synopsis of the British 

 Diatomaceae," published in 1853 and 1856, — "a striking- 

 memorial of his industry in collecting, and patience in deter- 

 mining, objects so minute, but at the same time so curious and 

 interesting." 3 The plates in his book contain figures of nearly 

 400 species, and are beautifully engraved — the materials 

 from which he worked being now in the British Museum. 



1 The younger Jackson was elected an Associate of the Botanical 

 Society of Edinburgh on May 14, 1S40. 



2 Thomas F. Palmer, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, who is 

 mentioned in Boswell's " Life of Johnson/' and whose name is inscribed 

 on the monument in the old Calton burying-ground to the " Political 

 Martvrs' 1 who suffered for their early efforts in the caiise of reform. 



3 " Proceedings Linnean Society," 1857-58. 



