George Gardner
Gardner (1810-49) was a Scottish biologist whose main interest was botany. The son of a gardener, in 1829 he began to study medicine in the Andersonian university of Glasgow and eventually became a surgeon. In 1836 he published a botanical work on mosses which impressed the Duke of Bedford who became his patron and in the summer of that year Gardner sailed for Rio de Janeiro to collect plants, minerals, shells, skins and other natural history specimens in North Brazil. These specimens were sent back to public botanic gardens as well as to private subscribers to the expedition, and Gardner remained in Brazil until 1841. In 1842 he was elected a member of the Linnean Society and the following year was appointed to Ceylon as superintendent of the botanic garden in Peradeniya and island botanist. Here he finished his account of the Brazilian expedition which was first published in 1846. Reprinted from the second edition of 1849.
