TRANSACTIONS 



llaluriil pist0r3T Satictn of ^lasgob. 



Notes on Botany in the University of Glasgfow in the 

 18th Century. 



By Professor F. O. Bowek, Sc.D., F.R.S. 



[Read 17th November, 1903.] 



Since there have recently come into my hands, from various 

 sources, data bearing on the early histoiy of botany in Glasgow, 

 I thought that they might be threaded together into a contribu- 

 tion to our society. I only regret that I was not better informed 

 at the time v/hen I wrote an historical sketch on botany in 

 Glasgow as my contribution to the British Association Hand- 

 books, for I now find that we can .safely state that a garden for 

 instruction in botany existed in Glasgow as early as 1704, a 

 much earlier date than I had previously thought. In the article 

 for the handbook I remarked — '• The first botanic garden in 

 Glasgow was in the precincts of the old college in the High Street, 

 where a piece of ground was set apart for the cultivation of plants 

 for teaching, but no detailed account of it or of its contents 

 remains." Through the kindness of the Clerk of Senate of Glasgow 

 University, who has charge of the records, I am now in possession 

 of a number of extracts prepared by Mr. Coutts which do not, 

 it is iioie, give any connected account of the botanical establish- 

 ment, but, as it is not probable that any such full account will 

 ever be available, I submit these for what they are worth, 

 recording at the same time ray indebtedness to Mr. Coutts. 



