156 OBTTUARY NOTICE.— REV. GEORGE GUNN 



of all the plants and minerals in his parish. Nor did he 

 confine his observations to his parish and the surrounding 

 district. He was a member of the Scottish Alpine Botanical 

 Club, and of the Cryptogamic Society of Scotland, and 

 nothing pleased him more than to roam with congenial 

 companions over the hills of Perthshire in search of such 

 treasures as Saxifraya rivularis, or Carex ustulata, or Cystopteris 

 montana, or Woodsia hyperhorea, picking up at the same time 

 anything in the shape of a rare mineral that he might 

 come across. It was one of the greatest joys of his life 

 when he had the opportunity, in 1898 — little more than a 

 year before he died — of taking a more distant flight, and 

 accompanying two of his most intimate friends into the wilds 

 of the Southern Tyrol. There he found a field of botany 

 which threw the woods and waysides of Stichill, and even 

 the Breadalbane Hills, into the shade. To feast his eyes 

 on a great patch of Primula glutinosa, in all the beauty of 

 its fragrant violet flowers ; to gaze, after toilsome climbing 

 to a lofty height, on the shy, modest Uritrichium na7iiim, 

 most charming of Alpine plants ; to revel among Gentians 

 and Androsaces and Soldanellas, was the opening up of a 

 new world to him. It had been the dream of his life to 

 behold with his own eyes the glory of the Alps, and to 

 gather their treasures, and happily li'is dream was fulfilled 

 before he died. He never tired of recalling the scenes and 

 impressions of that memorable time during the few months 

 that still remained to him. 



Mr Gunn possessed an extensive Herbarium, composed for 

 the most part of his own gatherings, but supplemented by 

 those of the late Mr Andrew Brotherstone of Kelso, which 

 he acquired on that botanist's death. A considerable part 

 of the latter, however, was subsequently injured by fire. 

 More noteworthy than his Herbarium was his collection of 

 minerals, which he had carefully classified and named, and 

 which, arranged in a large case along one of the walls, 

 formed a conspicuous feature in his study. In addition to 

 these he possessed a vaiied collection of antiquarian objects 

 • — stone celts, stone hammers, flint implements, whorls, querns, 

 cannon balls shot from Hume Castle, and such like. Any- 

 thing illustrative of ancient life in Scotland was prized by 



