6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Alloa ; Robert Cowan, Forester, Arniston ; James Dickson^ 

 Forester, Charlton ; Thomas Forbes, Forester, Whittinghame ; 

 Robert Gardiner, Forester and Land Steward, Eglinton Castle ; 

 John M'Donald, Forester, Bargany; John M'Laren, Forester, 

 Hopetoun ; Hugh M'Laren, Forester, Shaw Park ; Alexander 

 M'Leish, Forester, Alnwick Castle; James Rutherford, Forester, 

 Buckden ; John Thomson, Forester, Culhorn ; William Thomson, 

 Deputy-Surveyor, Chopwell ; and Thomas Taylor, Forester, 

 Camperdown, Members of Committee. 



"Several Meetings of the Committee were held during the 

 year 1854, at which the Constitution and Laws were drawn up, 

 and various matters of importance discussed and arranged for the 

 formal institution of the Society. The results of the labours of 

 the Committee were submitted to the first ' Annual General 

 Meeting' of the Society, held at 6 York Place, Edinburgh, on 

 31st January 1855, ^ Mr James Brown, President, in the chair, and 

 after full consideration were unanimously approved of." 



Mr Brown continued in the Presidency for three years, and 

 was succeeded by the Earl of Ducie ; and since that time the 

 Presidential Chair has been filled by many eminent Arbori- 

 culturists. The Society does not seem to have been long in 

 making headway, for by the time it had been four years in 

 existence, its Membership had risen to 167, and about this 

 number it oscillated for the next eight years ; but at the close of 

 this period the Membership again took an upward tendency, and 

 in 1877 it reached 750. After this time the Membership again 

 seems to have become practically stationary, and it is not till 

 1895 that any marked increase appears. From this time onwards, 

 however, there has been a steady increase, and on the Jubilee 

 Anniversary the Roll of Membership stood at 1016. 



So far as can be ascertained, the Founders of the Society and 

 those who subsequently became Members in the first year of its 

 existence have passed away, and the oldest Members of the 

 Society are now Sir John Ramsden, Bart., and Mr John Grant 

 Thomson, Wood Manager, Grantown, Strathspey, both of whom 

 joined the Society in 1855. 



^ Two Annual General Meetings, the first and second, were held in 1855 

 (in January and November), so that from this year onwards the number of the 

 Annual General Meeting appears throughout the Transactions as one in 

 advance of the actual number of years in the Society's existence, and the 

 Jubilee Meeting therefore appears as the fifty-first instead of the fiftieth. 



