Nov. 1895.J BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 459 



From the Eoyal Botauic Garden were exhibited :— Vanda 

 Kimhalliana, Cestnuu aurantiacitm, Rucllia macrantha, 

 Tibouchina moricaiidiana iu tiower, and Vitis hetcroiyhylla 

 humulifolia (the blue-berried vine) in fruit. 



The President (Professor F. O. Bower) delivered the 

 following address : — 



It is, I believe, usual for a retiring President to address 

 the Society from this chair on some topic of current 

 interest to botanists. On casting round for a subject for 

 this eveniucr, I have thought that I could not do better 

 than turn your attention to the works of the celebrated 

 botanist, Eobert Brown, and consider them from the point 

 of view of their bearing on the science as it is at the 

 present day. You will all have been made aware, through 

 the medium of the newspapers, of the main facts of Brown's 

 life ; for, in connection with the recent dedication of a bust 

 to his memory in Montrose, his native town, by his kins- 

 woman Miss Paton, the story of his life was eloquently told 

 by Mr, Carruthers, and thus found its way afresh into the 

 public prints. I shall therefore refer you to those sources 

 of information, and devote our time this evening to the 

 discussion of his life's work. 



The botanists of his time were fully aware of his great 

 merits ; beyond the fact that Humboldt expressed his 

 opinion in the often quoted epithet, that he was " facile 

 botanicorum princeps," we have a substantial proof of 

 appreciation in the two volumes of the Pay Society's 

 publications, into which his papers were collected, and 

 edited by J. J. Bennett — his successor in office at the 

 British Museum. Such testimonials come to but few men 

 of science ; it is, however, in my opinion a still higher 

 proof of the value of the work of this great man, that after 

 the lapse of half a century his writings should hold the 

 place that they still do. It is only the great buildings of 

 a town which appear to tower above the rest in the distant 

 view ; and so in the growing distance of time it is only 

 the great minds which maintain, or it may be increase their 

 prominence above their more common-place contemporaries 

 Brown's reputation stands above that of his fellow-botanists 



