The late Mr John Sadler. By "William Craig, M.D. 75 



Ben Lawers is not only the highest but the richest in Alpine 

 plants. Sadler spent many of his holidays at the foot of this 

 mountain, staying at the Old Mill near Lawers Inn. Day after 

 day he made excursions to this famous mountain, one of the 

 loftiest in Britain, and surpassed by none in its interest to the 

 botanist. On several occasions when staying at the foot of Ben 

 Lawers young Sadler walked to Corry Ghalair in Glen Lochay, 

 a distance of nearly 20 miles and back the same evening, after 

 botanizing the rocks in that famous Oorry. I believe there were 

 only two plants of any consequence known to grow on Ben 

 Lawers that l^adler did not gather on that Mountain — Saxifraga 

 rivularis and Cystoptens monlana. He, however, on one occa- 

 sion at least gathered a fine specimen of Woodsia ilvensis on 

 the rocks near Lochan a' Chait. Sometimes Sadler spent his 

 holidays on the north side of Ben Lawers, in Glen Lyon, and it 

 was while staying in Glen Lyon that he first examined the rocks 

 on the north side of Meall Ghaorgdie, a mountain 3407 feet in 

 height. On these rocks he gathered some rare plants including 

 Cystopteris montana and Bartsia alpina. 



Tirai in Glen Lochay at the foot of Meall Ghaorgdie was also 

 the abode of Sadler during his holiday rambles, and his reminis- 

 cences of his abode in the old farm house at Tirai, and of his 

 fishing for salmon in the Lyon, must be fresh in the minds of his 

 many botanical friends. 



In those days Sadler was an excellent walker and frequently 

 went great distances to explore some mountain or glen. He had 

 an excellent knowledge of the habitat of Alpine plants. He be- 

 lieved that the geological formation as well as the direction of a 

 corry had much to do with the flora of a mountain. He main- 

 tained that the elevation of the rocks above sea level had not 

 much to do with the flora of a district, provided you had a large 

 high mass of mountains behind to keep these rocks always cool 

 and moist. Whatever may be said about the views Sadler enter- 

 tained on these questions, it is well known to all his botanical 

 friends that few men had a better knowledge of the kind of 

 ledges and corries in which to seek for rare alpine plants than 

 Sadler had, and in our excursions there was no one who sur- 

 passed him as a searcher for plants. He was moreover an 

 excellent cragsman, creeping along on his hands and knees, ven- 

 turing often where few dared to follow, and some of his rarest 

 finds were made when so engaged. 



