188 President's Address. 



Professor Balfour was instrumental, along with ten others, 

 in establishing the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. The 

 first meeting took jjlace in his house 15 Dundas Street, 

 on the 8th February 1836, and from this small beginning, 

 nearly fifty years ago, this Society, which now occupies so 

 prominent a position among scientific institutions, origin- 

 ated. In 1840 Professor Balfour became a lecturer on 

 Botany in Surgeon Square ; and in 1841 he succeeded Sir 

 William Hooker (who was translated to Kew) as Professor 

 of Botany in Glasgow. In 1845, on the death of Professor 

 Graham, he obtained the vacant chair of Botany in 

 Edinburgh, and at the same time was by the Govern- 

 ment appointed Eegius Keeper of the Botanic Garden 

 and Queen's Botanist for Scotland. He continued active 

 class work till 1879, when he retired from the chair, 

 owing to severe illness, and was succeeded by his friend 

 and pupil Professor Alexander Dickson, then Professor in 

 Glasgow. 



The progress of the Edinburgh Universit}' Botanical 

 Class is but an index of the progress of that medical school 

 of which it forms an important part. In 1846 there were 

 160 pupils, and in 1878 the number had increased to 400. 

 The manner in which the late Professor performed the 

 conjoined duties of Begins Keeper of the Boyal Botanic 

 Garden and Queen's Botanist for Scotland can be best 

 appreciated by old Edinburgh residents. The addition of 

 new ground to the Garden, the building of the Palm 

 H<mse, and other erections, to be capped by the active 

 exertions in promoting the allied Arboretum, was the work 

 of busy years, and too long for narration at this time. In 

 fact, the Garden and the Arboretum, as they stand, are 

 the floral memorials of the energy and perseverance of 

 John Hutton Balfour and James M'Nab. 



The admirable system of practical instruction, whether 

 in plant diagnosis, or vegetable histology, was a marked 

 feature in Professor Balfour's teaching, appreciated and 

 copied by other universities. So too were the weekly class 

 excursions, and more than one narrator has given to the 

 reading public a glimpse of the joys and hardships of 

 those long botanical rambles, made to the alpine districts 

 of Braemar, Clova, and Breadalbane, the highlands of 



