PRINCIPAL GARDENERS—WILLIAM MCNAB. 293 
William McNab. 
With Portrait.! 
Through Sommerville’s death, Prof. Rutherford found himself 
called upon to appoint a Principal Gardener for the fifth time 
during his tenure of the Regius Keepership—to date of twenty- 
three years. Fortune had not smiled on his appointments so far. 
Three of the men whom he had chosen had died in harness— 
two of them when still young and giving promise of much in the 
future—and the fourth had left because of strained relationships, 
as we have reason to think. We may imagine, therefore, that the 
making of this new appointment would give him some concern, 
which would not be lessened because of its urgency in view of the 
near approach of the beginning of the Summer Session of the 
University. There was no one on the staff of the garden, as 
we learn from him in a letter printed hereafter, whom he could 
Promote, and the salary of the post appears to have been 
inadequate as an attraction to an outsider. On this latter point 
we have Dr. Neill writing at this time in his note, already 
referred to, in the Scots Magazine, LX XII (1810), p. 166, and 
giving strong expression to what we may suppose to have been 
the general feeling regarding it. He says :-— 
“While the situation of superintendent is thus vacant, it can 
give no offence, we should suppose, if we remark upon the 
insufficiency of the salary. Forty years ago, the keeper of the 
Botanic Garden may have found himself ‘passing rich with 
forty pounds a year. But that such a pittance must now be 
utterly inadequate is too evident to require illustration. In this 
country there is little difficulty in finding men of merit in the 
Sardening profession ; indeed, Scottish gardeners are held in 
repute all over the empire. Several excellent cultivators and 
keen botanists have, during the last ten years, issued from the 
Edinburgh Botanic Garden itself. To become Superintendent 
of the Physic Garden of Scotland is justly accounted a horti- 
cultural and botanical honour. But it is hard to ask a person to 
"I am indebted to Miss McNab, granddaughter of William McNab, for the 
photograph from which this portrait has been taken: The only published portrait of 
William McNab is one in profile from a sketch by his daughter, a copy of which 
was given to each subscriber to the testimonial presented to Mr. McNab in 
1844 (see page 316). 
INotes, R.B.G., Edin., No. XV., March 1908. } 
