BOTAirr IN GLASGOW UNIVEHSITT IX 18tH CENTURY. 131 



ceased to servo its purpose as a botanic garden very shortly after 

 1800, for after that date come items paid for " supplying plants 

 for the class of botany." It appears that when the old garden 

 was cut up for building, no new garden was at once established. 

 It .seems indeed doubtful whether eitlier the " Blythswood land," 

 acquired in 1809, or the "ground near AVoodside," mentioned in 

 1817, were ever really established as a botanic garden, though 

 steps were taken to do fencing: for the payments for " the usual 

 allowance of £20 " continue till 1816. 



Meanwhile a movement on the part of the citizens was in pro- 

 gress, in which the Crown and the College joined, and this resulted 

 in the charter of the Royal Botanic Institution, and the 

 establisiiment of the botanic garden at Sandyford, opened to the 

 public in 1819. The collection of some 3,000 species, grown in 

 the garden of Dalbeth, the property of Mr. Thomas Hopkirk, was 

 given by him to the institution, and formed the basis upon which 

 the scientific collection of the new garden was founded. From 

 an unavailing memorial drawn up to the Treasur}^ in 1822, by 

 Professors MacGill, Mylne. and Hooker, soliciting aid to the 

 funds of the institution, it appears that nearly eight acres of 

 ground had been procured, walls and conservatories and other 

 accommodation erected, and gardens containing 9,000 species of 

 plants, many of them rare and curious, laid out and planted in a 

 style at once ornamental and suited to scientific purposes. The 

 annual expense for maintenance was stated at ,£500, and there 

 was a debt of £1,500. A copy of the plan of this garden, dated 

 1825, is given as Plate IV. 



All that now remains to mark the site of the old Sandyford 

 garden, which was absorbed by streets and buildings shoi-tl)' 

 after 1842, is a tablet on a building to the north of Trinity 

 Congregational Church, Claremont Street. The history of tlie 

 present garden which replaced that at Sandyford is so well known 

 that it calls for no further remark. 



Private physic gardens existed from time to time about Glasgow, 

 for the supply of medicinal plants — for instance John Wodrow, 

 M.D.. who died in 17G9, had a physic garden, to the upkeep of 

 which the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons contributed 

 annually : it was situated on the east bank of the Molendinar 

 Burn, about where St. Andrew's Square now is. Another 



