SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MR. A. ALEXANDER. 



hood was 

 roundings. 



,R. A. ALEXANDER, 

 President of Hamilton 

 Horticultural Society, 

 was born at Errol in the 

 Valley of the Tay (Carse 

 O' Gowrie), Perthshire, 

 Scotland, where his boy- 

 spent amid beautiful sur- 

 He has inherited his love 

 of flowers from his mother, of whom his 

 earliest recollection is of watching her 

 attending to her garden in which she 

 had all the old favourites, auriculas, 

 polyanthus, sweet williams, and a 

 rockery containing many varieties of 

 saxifrages and other Alpine plants ; his 

 first task being that of assisting her in 

 keeping the weeds down. 



His first venture in floriculture was 

 made when about ten years of age. 

 Some person had said that Primroses 

 planted in soot would produce purple 

 flowers, so he hied him to a neighbor- 

 ing plantation, and dug about fifty 

 plants from the stiff clay bank of a little 

 stream, transporting his treasures in his 

 new clean pinafore, a proceeding which 

 did not meet with maternal approval 

 when discovered. 



The plants were set on the north side 

 of a hawthorn hedge, where they throve 

 amazingly, being treated to occasional 

 doses of soot surreptitiously scraped 

 from the kitchen chimney. 



The opening of the first buds was 

 anxiously watched for, and great were 

 the expectations, but alas, the longed for 

 purple did not materialize, the yellow 

 primroses were yellow still, but the 

 bloom was abundant, lasting through 

 April and June, and was so much im- 

 proved by cultivation as to attract 

 public attention, church goers pausing 

 on their quiet Sabbath journey to admire 

 the display. 



The partial success quickened the 

 youthful interest, and the patch was 

 filled out in the following spring, the 

 result being that the young enthusiast 

 could soon have supplied the whole of 

 his county with seed, if such had been 

 required Fifty years later, on revisit- 

 ing the place of his birth, he found 

 these primroses or their descendants, 

 growing luxuriantly in the same spot, 

 although the old garden had long since 

 passed into the hands of strangers. Mr. 

 Alexander received his early education 

 in the parish school, and intended to 

 study for the ministry, but when about 

 to enter St. Andrew's University, his 

 health failed and the family doctor 

 ordered out-door employment. Civil 

 engineering was suggested, but his 

 desire was for horticulture, so he was 

 apprenticed in the gardens of Lady Allen, 

 near his home, where he remained three 

 years, thence going to England to widen 

 his knowledge. Here he was fortunate in 

 obtaining good positions having charge 

 of the Marquis of Northampton's conser- 

 vatories and orchid housesfor some time. 

 His health having in the meantime be- 

 come thoroughly restored, he entered 

 Homerton College, London, remaining 

 at that institution until he had graduated, 

 when he removed to Yorkshire, where he 

 dwelt for fourteen years, teaching school, 

 but always dabbling in botany, collecting 

 specimens, etc., never failing to have a 

 flower garden, in fact being sometimes 

 charged with monopolizing ground that 

 might be much more profitably utilized 

 in producing vegetables for family use. 



In 187 1 Mr. Alexander brought his 

 family to Canada, intending to settle in 

 Muskoka, where he had heard land was 

 plentiful, offering strong inducements 

 for farming and gardening. 



He journeyed beyond Bracebridge, a 

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