William Gardiner

Life

William Gardiner was born in Dundee, at Overgate, on 13 July 1808. According to Lawley, his mother sold pottery, while his father, William senior, was a weaver, gardener, botanist and poet.

At the age of 10, William was apprenticed to an umbrella-maker.

Wanting to continue his education, he took evening classes on botany. the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria also hold his specimens. Under the title Twenty lessons on British Mosses; first steps to a knowledge of that beautiful tribe of plants ... illustrated with specimens Gardiner authored books which include mounted specimens for educational purposes. They resemble exsiccata booklets.

These exsiccatae-like books have attracted renewed academic attention in the 21st century, particularly by historians and artists who have focused on these works as material culture that mixed poetry, 'botanical science and mounted local plant specimens.'

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