Obituary Notices. 39 



embracing as that does the training of the whole man, as 

 an intellectual, moral, and spiritual being, has so powerfully 

 contributed. 



An acute disease cut short his life in the midst of his 

 activity and usefulness, his physical and mental powers 

 exhibiting no signs of natural decay, though he had by two 

 years surpassed the threescore years and ten. 



On September 16, 1879, our Society lost another able and 

 energetic horticulturist in the person of Mr Peter S. Eobert- 

 SON, at the age of sixty-one. He was born at Dalclionzie, 

 near Comrie, of parents who were in very humble circum- 

 stances. He was sent to school at Dunira, and afterwards 

 served a regular apprenticeship at Drymen, under Mr 

 Montgomery, gardener to the Duke of Montrose. In 

 1837 he got a situation in the Koyal Botanic Garden here, 

 under the father of our late Curator, than whom no one was 

 better qualified to train those under him to a thorough 

 knowledge of their vocation ; and we may be sure that 

 with Robertson's abilities and good common sense, the 

 six years' training which he here underwent would not be 

 in vain. From the Botanical Garden he went in 1843 to 

 the Messrs Peter Lawson & Son, where he remained for 

 sixteen years, during fourteen of which he held the position 

 of manager. His advantages here were very great, and 

 his acquaintance with the seed trade was correspondingly 

 extensive. 



A friend informs me that Mr Robertson had an ardent 

 desire for knowledge, and a great propensity to launch 

 into new fields of discovery, and was animated by an 

 enthusiasm for the beautiful in plant form, which roused 

 even unimpassioned natures to a like feeling. When he 

 started on his own account he was most enterprising, and 

 his efibrts w^ere crowned with success ; for having begun 

 business at Trinity, he was not long ere he extended his 

 nurseries to Inverleith Row and Stanley Road. His 

 ability both as a nursery- and seeds-man were soon publicly 

 acknowledged by his being frequently called upon to act 

 as a valuator in both departments. If there was one 

 feature more than another in which the excellency of his 

 nurseries appeared, it was in the hardy trees and shrubs to 



