THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1854-1904. 5 



II. The Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, 1854-1904. 



In the Transactions for 1884,^ the year in which the 

 International Forestry Exhibition was held at Edinburgh, a brief 

 account of the formation and rise and progress of the Society is 

 given, together with an enumeration of the principal events 

 with which it was identified from the time of its foundation 

 down to that year. 



In this account it is stated that : — '' At a meeting held in 

 Edinburgh on the i6th - of February 1854, at which Mr William 

 M'Corquodale, Forester, Scone Palace, Perth, presided, for the 

 purpose of presenting a testimonial to Mr James Brown on the 

 occasion of his appointment to the office of Deputy-Surveyor 

 of Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, a suggestion was made by 

 Mr William Thomson, Deputy-Surveyor, Chopwell Wood, Co. 

 Durham, that, as Agriculture and Horticulture had derived much 

 benefit from Associations designed to promote their respective 

 interests, * something of a similar kind should be done for 

 Forestry.' The suggestion was at once adopted by the 

 Meeting, and the Scottish Arboricultural Society there and 

 then originated. 



" A Committee was immediately formed to carry out the 

 proposal, the Members of which were : — James Brown, Deputy- 

 Surveyor, Dean Forest, President; William M'Corquodale, 

 Forester and Wood-Surveyor, Scone, Vice-President; James 

 Alexander, Nurseryman, Edinburgh, Secretary ; John Anderson, 

 Nurseryman, Perth, Treasurer; James Balden, Forester, Lennox- 

 love ; John Balden, Forester, Bywell Castle ; Mr Campbell, 



1 Vol. XI. p. 114. 



"^ There is a curious discrepancy between the date given here and 

 that of the first minute of the meeting. The first minute, written by the 

 Secretary, Mr James Alexander, on a sheet of note paper, bears date 

 17th February; but the transcript of this minute in the Minute-Book 

 bears date i6th February. In all the other documents of the Society, 

 and in all references to its institution, the date i6th February, so far 

 as is known, occurs, with the single exception of Mr M'Corquodale's 

 reference in his Address delivered at the Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting, 6th 

 August 1889 (Vol. XII. p. 375), where he speaks of it as 17th February, a 

 singular error, if error it was, on the part of the Chairman of the Meeting at 

 which the Society was formed, and who had all through been closely identified 

 with its work. The original minute is reproduced at page 43. 



