18885. ] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 273 
as a botanist and horticulturist, and to whom is credited the introduction into 
cultivation of what is now known as the Kilmarnock weeping willow, which, 
it is said, he discovered amongst some of the hedges of Ayrshire. 
hen Hen Ainslie, the well known American naturalized poet, was 
young man making the tour, the fanciful account of which he afterwards pub- 
lished under the title of “A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns,” he visited, 
amongst other places worthy of note, Mr. Smith’s residence and gardens, known 
by the name of Monkwood Grove, situated on the banks of the classic Doon, 
and puts on record a very pleasing picture of the place and its occupant and its 
botanical treasures. 
In the year 1815 Mr. Goldie married Margaret Ballantyne Smith, daughter 
of his preceptor. An incident of his early youth was his appointment as bot- 
W 
unexplained cause, superseded at the last moment, whic 
terwards to regret, as the expedition turned out abortive, 
bers succumbing to the terrible African climate. 
For the purpose of th ghly 
with the botanic gardens at Glasgow, and in company with the lamented bot- 
anist and traveler Douglas studied botany under Sir William Hooker, 
was at that time curator of the gardens, and whose lifelong friendship he af- 
terwards enjoyed. 
e paid his first visit to America in 1817-18, and at Montreal made the 
acquaintance of Frederick Pursh, one of the pioneer botanists of this continent, 
and at that time residing at Montreal ; congeniality of tastes resulting in Mr. 
Pursh furnishing him with useful letters of introduction to people throughout 
the country likely to aid him in his researches. Returning home in 1818, he 
revisited America in 1819-22. His diary, still preserved in manuscript, records 
his starting on foot from Montreal on the 4th June, 1819, and in this way mak- 
he St. Lawrence, with a divergence to the Lake Simcoe 
‘oronto, at that time called Little 
without observing or being made 
Hamilton now stands. The Niagara 
nearly all the mem- 
the diary dates his arrival at what was 
named from an oil that was seen to rise to 
dark-colored, and having a strong bituminous smell. Some soldiers, marching 
from Pittsburg to Detroit, were said to be the first to report the discovery of 
this oil, the virtue of which as a cure for rheumatism they also found out, the 
march in the wet having made many of them victims to it. 
The diary, of course, makes many references to the plants noted in the dif- 
ferent localities, and his services to the science were recognized by English bot- 
anists in annexing his name to a fern, Aspidium Goldianum, which he was the 
to describe and procure specimens ol. 
