PRINCIPAL GARDENERS—WILLIAM MCNAB. 307 
and from McNab’s notes which have been preserved we learn the 
dates of preparation of some of them in the old Garden, that of 
planting in the new Garden, and also the positions in which they 
were planted, and are thus enabled to recognise several of them, 
now stately specimens, in the Garden of to-day. His notes also 
give us particulars of herbaceous plants and shrubs, as well as of 
plants in pots, that were put in the new Garden. 
The removal of such a collection of plants, and the formation 
of this Botanic Garden on a new site, gave McNab an unrivalled 
experience in transplanting! and planting shrubs and trees, both 
deciduous and evergreen, and the results of his experience with 
the last mentioned class he embodied at a later period in 
@ pamphlet,? which, as it is difficult to obtain a copy—I have 
been endeavouring to find one for some years for the Library of 
the Royal Botanic Garden, and so far without success—and there 
is much sound advice in its pages, I have had transcribed from a 
copy in the Library of the University of Edinburgh, and print it 
as Appendix A to this narrative. 
Established in the new Garden, McNab’s further history is that 
of its Principal Gardener identified with its reputation alike for 
its collection of plants and their cultivation, and for the young 
Practical gardeners trained in it. Most gardeners find an affinity 
in some group of plants which absorbs their interest more than 
do other groups. McNab was no exception, and was attracted in 
special degree by Heaths and plants which were then commonly 
called “ New Holland Plants ”—a class nowadays out of fashion 
and relegated to unmerited neglect by the crowd of easily-grown 
soft-wooded plants. The collection of these hard-wooded plants 
in the Royal Botanic Garden under McNab was renowned both 
for number of species and for size of specimens. In 1832 
*In an article in the ‘‘Scottish Farmer and Horticulturist” for April 24, 1861, headed 
““McNab’s Transplanting Machine,” James McNab describes a machine which he says 
“was Originally invented by my father, Mr William McNab, late Curator of the Royal 
Botanic Gar arden, where it has been in active operation for the last thirty-five years, 
with a .. of success not often witnessed.” 
*“ Hints the Planting and General Treatment of Hardy Evergreens in the 
— of “Donlimsg By William M’Nab. Edinburgh, Thomas Clark, 38 George 
reet, 1830 
Q 
