164 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
reputation was not Scottish only, it was world-wide, and the 
woods under his charge at Scone had become the Mecea of those 
who desired to witness good forestry in this country. An original 
member of our Society, it may be truly said that to his indomit- 
able perseverance and determination we owe it that the Society 
lived through those early vears after birth which are fatal to 
many like institutions. The presentation made to him in 1878, 
which will be in the recollection of most of those present here 
to-day, and his election as an honorary member of our Society, 
illustrate the high estimation in which he was held by his fellow- 
workers ; the pages of our publications will witness to posterity 
his energy in behalf of, and his interest in, the progress of our 
Society and of forestry, and generations yet unborn will appre- 
ciate his skill and foresight as a practical forester. He has gone 
from us in the fulness of years, leaving a record of a life well 
and usefully spent, and the stamp thereof on the forestry of his 
time. If I content myself with this brief tribute, and do not 
refer to particulars of his life and work, it is not because I do not 
think I might have usefully dwelt on these, but because I think 
that some pen better qualified than mine may well recount the 
story of his life, for incorporation in the publications of our 
Society, as one eminently calculated to be a stimulating example 
to younger men. 
IT must not omit to notice also that in Mr John M‘Laren this 
Society has lost another veteran member, who did it yeoman 
service in its early days as an office-bearer, and died in office as 
a councillor. 
In such men as these the Society loses those whom it can ill 
spare, and their removal should remind the younger men of the 
Society that upon them is now coming the burden of the work 
so well carried on by the preceding generation. May they acquit 
themselves as well. 
I congratulate myself, in addressing the Society to-day, that I am 
able to speak in the hope that, within a very short period from now, 
the Society will have secured another and most important position, 
for which it has so long striven in its fight for the cause of forestry. 
I think all of you will agree with me that at no preceding time 
within recollection has the subject of forestry been so prominently 
before the public of the United Kingdom as it is at the present 
moment, and that not as a mere matter for discussion and talk— 
the time for that is past. Forestry is now within the range of 
