1852.] lAnnean Society. 191 



residence in St. Giles's, Oxford, on the 17th of September last, at 

 the age of 76. 



John Murray, Esq. 



Patrick Neill, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Secretary of the Cale- 

 donian Horticultural Society, and of the Wernerian Society of Na- 

 tural History, was head of the extensive printing firm of Neill and 

 Company, and had for many years been a distinguished citizen of 

 the town of Edinburgh. Gifted in early life with a taste for sci- 

 entific pursuits, he attached himself more especially to the study of 

 Botany and of Horticulture. He was not unmindful, however, of the 

 claims of Zoology, but contributed greatly to promote the establish- 

 ment of the Edinburgh Zoological Garden, and himself possessed 

 numerous specimens of living animals, of the habits of some of 

 which he has given interesting accounts. His first publication was a 

 ' Tour through Orkney and Shetland,' 8vo, 1806, which gave rise 

 at the time to much discussion, on account of its exposure of the 

 wretched state of things then prevalent in those islands, and is be- 

 lieved to have contributed much to their subsequent improvement. 

 His other separately published works ai'e, ' An Account of the 

 Basalts of Saxony, from the French of Daubuisson, with Notes,' 

 8vo, Edinb. 1814; and 'An Account of British Horticulture,' 4to, 

 Edinb. 1817, since republished and carried through several editions 

 under the title of ' The Flower, Fruit and Kitchen Garden.' This 

 work had originally formed the Article "Horticulture" in the 

 ' Edinburgh Encyclopaedia ' ; and was followed by a " Journal of a 

 Horticultural Tour through some parts of Flanders, Holland and 

 the North of France, in the autumn of 1817, by a Deputation of the 

 Caledonian Horticultural Society," Edinb. 8vo, 1823. The depu- 

 tation consisted of Mr. Neill, iVlr. John Hay, planner, of Edinburgh, 

 and Mr. James MacDonald, chief-gardener at Dalkeith ; and the 

 journal of their joint observations, drawn up by Mr. Neill, gives a 

 clear, lucid, practical and very interesting account of the state of 

 horticulture in the district visited. He had then been for some 

 years Secretary of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, of which 

 he was one of the founders, and he continued to fill that office for 

 the long jDcriod of forty years. His devotion to horticulture is 

 further evinced by his having bequeathed to that Society a sum of 

 500/. for the purpose of founding a Medal to be awarded to distin- 

 guished Scottish cultivators, among whom he himself took a high 

 rank, his garden at Canonmills, near Edinburgh, furnishing a striking 

 proof of the zeal and success with which he applied himself to the 

 practice of the art. His residence was long the well-known resort 



