TEANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



EOYAL SCOTTISH ARBOEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



I. Address delivered at the Fifty-first^ Atviual Meeting, i6th 

 February 1904. By W. Steuart Fothringham, Esq., 

 President of the Society. 



This being our Jubilee Meeting, I think it is only right that we 

 should, in some shape or form, draw attention to the history of the 

 Society. Presidents before me have drawn attention, and very 

 ably, to various points in connection with the more practical 

 aspects of forestry, but on this particular occasion I think it 

 would be only right that we should take some little survey of 

 our past history and progress. In 1854 the Society was founded,, 

 under the Presidency of James Brown, who was then Deputy- 

 Surveyor in the Forest of Dean, and with a Committee of nineteen 

 Members. As far as the records of the Society show, there were 

 few other Members, so that evidently it was a small Society to start 

 with. Two years later the Society commenced to publish their 

 Transactions. It was not until 1866 they began, like most Societies, 

 to have an Annual Dinner, and it was not a bad way of bringing 

 the Members of the Society together. The next event of great 

 interest occurred in 1869, when Queen Victoria was pleased to 

 give to the Society her patronage. This was a sign that the 

 Society was getting on, and that its position was well established, 

 because it is well known that the Sovereign does not give his or 

 her patronage to a Society which is not properly founded. Her 

 Majesty continued her patronage to the end of her life, and 

 King Edward has been pleased to give the Society his patronage 

 since that time. It was not till 1873 that the discussions on 

 forestry were inaugurated at the Annual Meetings, and people at 

 large began to take an interest in what the Society was doing. 



^ See footnote, page 6. 

 VOL. XVIII. A 



