170 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxvii. 



Gardiner's pleasure in these rambles and his desire to 

 increase his knowledge made him anxious to have the 

 opportunity of a wider field. A modest proposal he made 

 to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in 1838, to collect 

 for the Society 2500 specimens of plants from the Perth- 

 shire mountains, for the sum of five guineas, was accepted 

 by the Society. If the sum he asked was a poor return 

 for the labour he spent and the 3000 specimens he supplied, 

 at least it brought him into contact with many fellow- 

 workers in Scottish botany ; and, on 18th November 1838, 

 the Society showed their regard for his work by electing 

 him an Associate. The London Botanical Society also took 

 advantage of his services, and added his name to the list 

 of their Associates x ; and, as I have said, ultimately he 

 came to devote his time altogether to the collection and 

 distribution of British plants. From this period till his 

 death, it would be hard to estimate how many and how 

 varied were the specimens which passed through his hands. 

 Orders from all parts of the three kingdoms and from the 

 Continent found their way to his hands, and he got into 

 communication with all the famous botanists of the time. 

 The elder Hooker (Sir W. J.), Professor Lindley, Churchill 

 Babington, and his better known relative, C. Cardale 

 Babington of the " British Flora " ; Hewett Cottrell Watson, 

 the earliest investigator of the geography of British plants, 

 with whom Gardiner botanised on the Clova Mountains; 

 Professor Walker- Arnott of Glasgow, Professor J. Hutton 

 Balfour, Edinburgh (a good friend to Gardiner in many 

 wa}7\s), Professor Harvey, Dublin, the elder Lyell of 

 Kinnord}', and his more famous son, Sir Charles, and many 

 others, who gave him every encouragement in his work 

 and spoke highly of him to their friends and pupils. And 

 now in the summer and early autumn months of each year 

 he was to be found at Clova, or among the Perthshire hills, 

 collecting his plants in mighty loads ; drying and pressing 

 them at the nearest inns, or in shepherds' huts, and for- 

 warding them to Dundee by the country carriers, for trains 

 were only beginning then to make themselves infinitely 

 useful. In some lines which he sent to his friend James 

 Donald in London, who served his apprenticeship in one 



1 In 1849 the Linnean Society enrolled him in their list of Associates. 



