October 2, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
73 
Mr. Laing was born in October, 1823, in the parish 
of Carriston, near Brechin, and commenced his garden¬ 
ing career at an early age in the gardens at Old 
Montrose, then under the direction of Mr. Reid, an 
able and enthusiastic gardener, who at that period was 
also a very successful exhibitor at the Montrose flower 
shows. Mr. Reid also knew herbaceous plants well, 
and had the care of a fine collection, and, doubtless, it 
was owing in no slight degree to his enthusiasm, that 
his pupil acquired such a strong love for the study of 
botany. He was at Old Montrose four years, and 
during that time spent his leisure hours in gathering 
and identifying the wild plants of the district, in which 
agreeable work he derived much valuable assistance 
from a young medical student with whom he was in 
close friendship until the latter received an appoint¬ 
ment in Manilla. Having acquired a good knowledge 
of the native flowering plants of the district, Mr. Laing 
took up the study of mosses, 
Jungermanni and other 
Cryptogamic plants, but the 
time available for such work 
was very limited, as Old 
Montrose being, a sort of 
market garden, the hours of 
labour on four days in the 
week, during the summer 
months, were from 5 a.m. to 
8 p.m. 
From this place the young 
gardener went to Kinnaird 
Castle, the seat of the Earl 
of Southesk, where he dis¬ 
covered several mosses new 
to the locality, and amongst 
other interesting plants 
found Coralorhiza innata, 
the only European species of 
a very interesting genus of 
Orchids, and which grows 
in boggy places. Owing to 
the long hours of labour, 
the young men employed in 
thegardens here were allowed 
eight days’ holiday in the 
summer, and when the first 
of these annual holidays 
came round, Mr. Laing and 
a couple of friends undertook 
on foot a botanical excursion 
to the Grampians, during 
which they visited Ballater, 
climbed to the summit of 
Loclinagar, where they found 
Azalea procumbens growing 
in large patches as smooth 
as a carpet. The view 
across the river Dee to Ben 
Macdui was much enjoyed, 
and examining the rocks as 
much as time would permit, 
several other rare and in¬ 
teresting plants were found, 
including Saxifragarivularis. 
Resting at night at a farm¬ 
house in the Spital of Glen 
Mick, the party visited Glen 
Clova, and on the mountain 
side, to the eastward of the Kirktown of Clova, they 
came upon Loch Brandy—a black dangerous-looking 
lake—on the borders of which they found Lobelia 
Dortmanna. On the following morning the party, in 
charge of a guide, visited Glen Dole, where some of the 
rarest British plants are known to grow, and many of 
them were found, including Dianthus alpinus, Sonchus 
alpinus, Linnea borealis, &c. The remainder of the 
trip was spoilt by rain, which, coming down incessantly 
for some hours, put the party into uncomfortable 
straits, and compelled them to return homewards. 
At the end of two years, Mr. Laing left Kinnaird 
Castle and went to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edin¬ 
burgh, under the lato Mr. McNab. Here, botanising 
was carried on with renewed vigour on every available 
opportunity, and it was while on one of his holiday 
rambles on Salisbury Crags that he made a most 
important “find,” none other than Dianthus coesius, 
which had not before been recorded as growing there. 
"When he exhibited the specimens he had gathered, 
at a meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, the 
learned professors and other members present cast 
doubts upon the veracity of his statements, and even 
hinted that he must have first planted the Dianthus 
on the rocks. However, taking the clerk of the society 
with him one evening, he showed him the patch of 
plants in a dangerous and well-nigh inaccessible position, 
which settled the question at once, and shortly after¬ 
wards the reward came in the form of an associateship 
of the society, which entitled the holder to all the 
privileges of a Fellow, without having to pay a sub¬ 
scription. Mr. Laing took advantage of this to regu¬ 
larly attend the monthly meetings, and exchanged 
specimens with the Society or its members. At this 
time he was endeavouring to qualify himself for the 
curatorship of a botanic garden, or to go abroad as a 
collector, but being disappointed in obtaining a govern¬ 
ment appointment at Madras, then vacant, he changed 
his mind and decided to go into the nursery business. 
John Laing. 
In the August of 1847 Mr. McNab procured him the 
appointment of manager ol the Onchan Nursery in the 
Isle of Man, which belonged to the late Mr. Spittle. 
The nursery was about twenty acres in extent, and 
had been’ badly managed ; nevertheless, Mr. Laing 
made it pay expenses the first year, and might have 
stopped there as proprietor if he liked, as the nursery 
was offered to him on favourable terms, but failing to 
see his way clearly to making such a nursery pay well, 
he decided upon leaving the Island. 
In 1847 the Royal Caledonian Society offered a Silver 
Medal for the best fasiculus of British mosses, which 
Mr. Laing decided to compete for ; but knowing that 
Mr. Mclver, then at Kew, had been collecting all over 
the country for the late Sir William Hooker, he felt 
he had no chance against him, and decided to limit 
his collection to the specimens he had collected within 
a radius of ten miles of Edinburgh. Before the com¬ 
petition came off, Mr. Mclver received an appointment 
to go out to Madras, which removed the opposition. 
While in the Isle of Man, Mr. Laing arranged, mounted, 
and named his collection, carefully recording the 
habitats, &c. The whole were bound up together and 
returned to Edinburgh, where it was unanimously 
awarded the Silver Medal. The collection was ex¬ 
amined by Professor Greville, Dr. Balfour, Dr. Neil, 
and others, and every specimen but one was found to 
be correctly named, the doubtful one being a variety of 
Hypnum complanatum, which they did not name. 
Mr. Laing has won many medals since, but none are 
valued more highly than that which he gained for his 
mosses. 
On leaving the Isle of Man, Mr. Laing went to 
Chester, and for six months had the charge of the 
indoor department of Messrs. F. & J. Dickson’s nursery, 
but being subsequently offered the post of manager of 
the whole nursery, he declined to accept it on the 
ground that he did not feel equal to the occasion. 
Leaving Chester he was shortly afterwards engaged as 
gardener to Earl of Rosslyn, 
at Dysart House, Fife. 
Here Mr. Laing soon dis¬ 
covered that the study of 
botany had to give way to 
the pursuit of floriculture, 
as Lord Rosslyn was fond of 
his garden, and especially 
partial to Rhododendrons 
and Hollyhocks. Of the 
former he had the finest col¬ 
lection in the country, and 
under Mr. Laing’s manage¬ 
ment the same was soon said 
of his Hollyhocks. Crossing 
the small com pact-flowered 
English varieties with the 
large broad guard-petalled 
Scotch flowers, Mr. Laing 
obtained a greatly improved 
race, which enabled him to 
secure first honours at Edin¬ 
burgh against both English 
and Scotch growers. He also 
turned his attention to the 
show Pansy, and by careful 
hybridising was successful 
in obtaining many fine va¬ 
rieties, including Countess 
of Rosslyn and Colonel 
Wyndham, &c., which in 
their day eclipsed all others. 
Success also attended his 
efforts in hybridising Rho¬ 
dodendrons, and he had the 
good fortune to be the first 
to flower Rhododendron 
Dalhousianum in Europe, 
as was duly recorded by 
the late Sir William 
Hooker in the Botanical 
Magazine. 
With Calceolarias, Cine¬ 
rarias, and Chrysanthemums 
he was also most successful 
at the Caledonian Society’s 
Shows ; with the latter, 
indeed, he took all the first 
prizes in Edinburgh for 
several years, and Mr. James 
Douglas maintains still, that the Dysart blooms were 
as fine as any that have been seen in the south. After 
twelve years’ service at Dysart, Mr. Laing in 1860 
joined the Edinburgh firm of Downie k Laird, and 
came, to’ London to open the nursery at Stanstead 
Park. 
In 1875 the firm of Downie, Laird & Laing was dis¬ 
solved, in so far as it related to the partnership in 
London ; since then the nurseries have become con¬ 
siderably developed and extended, until they are 
second to none in that district. Here he has 
continued to raise new Hollyhocks, Pansies, more 
especially the showy fancy varieties, Penstemons, 
Phloxes, Antirrhinums, Fuchsias, and bronze and 
tricolor-leaved Pelargoniums, and quite a respectable¬ 
sized catalogue could be filled with the fine varieties in 
each section, of plants which he raised and put into 
commerce. He improved them all so much in fact, 
that progress became slow, too slow, and it was then, 
about twelve years ago that he turned his attention to 
the tuberous-rooted Begonia. 
