242 The Scottish Naturalist. 



University, Dr. John Thomas Boswell, better known as Dr. Bos- 

 well Syme, and John Smith, for many years Curator of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, with the progress of which to their present 

 excellence he was very intimately associated. 



Professor Alexander Dickson, whose very sudden death at 

 the early age of 5 1 has left a wide circle of mourning friends, was 

 born in Edinburgh, on 21st Feb. 1836. His father was a lawyer 

 in Edinburgh ; and also was the proprietor of valuable estates in 

 Lanark and Peeblesshires, to which Prof. Dickson succeeded, by 

 the death of an elder brother. He received his education as a 

 boy at home, and as a student at the University of Edinburgh, 

 where he graduated M.D. in i860, and gained a gold medal for 

 his thesis, upon the structure of the seed-vessel in the Caryophyl- 

 lacecs. His tastes lay very strongly in the direction of morpholog- 

 ical Botany ; and it was with great reluctance that he found it 

 necessary to commence practice in Edinburgh, and with great 

 pleasure that he soon was enabled to give up medicine, in order to 

 devote himself wholly to his favourite pursuits. His first experi- 

 ence in teaching Botany was in the University of Aberdeen, where 

 he acted as "locum tenens " in the summer of 1862 for Prof. 

 Dickie, who was then in bad health. In 1866 Dr. Dickson was 

 appointed to the Professorship of Botany in the University of 

 Dublin, vacant by the death of Prof. Harvey, the famous a]gologist ; 

 and in 1868 he obtained the same chair in the University of 

 Glasgow, on the death of Prof. Walker Arnott. 



On the resignation by Prof. J.H. Balfour, in 1879, of the chair 

 of Botany in Edinburgh, Dr. Dickson was appointed his successor; 

 and this appointment he continued to hold till his death on 30th 

 Dec. 1887. While in Edinburgh he was also Regius Keeper of 

 the Botanic Gardens. 



Professor Dickson in his tendencies belonged to the older 

 school of morphological botanists ; and he did much good work 

 in the field that he selected for his labours. The speculations 

 that have been so plentifully advanced of late years in the arena 

 of botanical discussion had little attraction for him ; and he acted 

 on the principle that what was true would bear to wait till tried 

 by time, rather than sought to be abreast of the fluctuating wave 

 of theories that might in a brief period prove false and misleading. 

 But his acquaintance with the science was wide and deep ; and 



