1912-13.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 167 



to challenge the " newspaper science.'" which was then 

 evidently quite as " cock-sure " as it frequently is now. 

 Other letters followed under the same signature, in one of 

 which he gives a list of " Localities for Rare Plants in the 

 Vicinity of Dundee." and asks information as to the 

 habitats of certain others which he was anxious to come 

 across. 



The manuscript magazines issued by Gardiner are, as I 

 have said, to be seen in the Dundee Reference Library, and 

 they are all carefully written out in his own clear and well- 

 formed handwriting. They are generally prefaced with 

 highly ornate title pages, and, when occasion requires, 

 drawings are also given. Gardiner apologises for his 

 sketches — " never having been taught drawing. " But 

 there is no need for apology — he never spared " infinite 

 pains " on his work, and the results are really admirable. 

 His first Natural History Journal was a notebook of his 

 own observations. Commencing 1st January 1827. it has 

 forty-five entries, the last being for 25th October of the 

 same year. The records given are of walks on Sunday 

 mornings and evenings. Sometimes, he writes, he was 

 " solus " ; at others, accompanied by friends, whose identity 

 he so far hides by the use of initials : frequently he is 

 joined by his father. Most prominence is given to botany, 

 but there are also notes on zoology, mineralogy, and 

 meteorology. The places visited are various — the Law 

 Hill, Dighty. Den of Mains. Mericmoor Wood. 1 Balgay. 

 Blackness. Den of Fowlis. Gray. Tay Grove. Magdalen 

 Green, but chiefly Wills Braes — " my favourite retreat. 

 the shady wilds of Wills Braes." The Braes are now 

 practically a thing of the past. Gardiner himself lived to 

 see them gradually disappearing. At the making of the 

 Dundee and Perth Railway the ground was first broken 

 on 18th September 1845. westward of Binrock. and at that 

 time a considerable number of trees had been cut down, 

 and quarries dug to procure the rough stones for the sea- 

 wall. " The operations." the local paper reports. " were 

 sadly destructive of the natural beauties of this secluded 

 spot." On 30th October the same paper states that Wills 



1 Gardiner invariably writes Mericmoor. now the designation is 

 American Muir. 



