242 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
had a longer spell of office, and few took a more active part 
in its affairs than Mr Laird. On the death of Mr Dunn he 
became Convener of the Excursion Committee, and it may truly 
be said that no more popular leader ever took the Excursion 
party in hand. Mr Laird served for a number of years at the 
Council Board, and on the Excursion and other committees, the 
Convenership of the former of which, owing to his business 
affairs claiming so much of his attention, he resigned in 1902; 
and he occupied the position of a Vice-President for one term. 
Mr Laird was born in Edinburgh in 1853, and was educated 
at the Edinburgh Institution, one of his school-mates being 
Dr Nisbet, the Hon. Editor of the Society’s Zransactions. He 
entered the nursery and seed business of Downie, Laird, and 
Laing, of which his father was one of the partners, and at the 
time of his death he was the senior managing director of the 
firm of R. B. Laird & Sons, Ltd. In the early seventies he 
spent two years in Ceylon, and on his return to Edinburgh he 
resumed his connection with the nursery and seed business with 
which his family had so long been associated. 
Besides arboriculture and _ horticulture, with the various 
societies connected with the latter of which he was closely 
identified, Mr Laird also took a deep interest in educational 
and other public affairs, and at the time of his death he was a 
member of the School Board and Parish Council of Corstorphine; 
and at all the meetings of the various bodies with which he was 
connected, his breadth of view, earnestness, and keen insight 
always carried much weight with his colleagues when difficult 
points had to be decided. 
Amidst his many other calls, Mr Laird found much time to 
devote to charitable and benevolent work, and he spared no 
effort to promote the best interests of whatever he took in hand 
in this way; and among the many societies and clubs with 
which he was connected, none will miss him more than those 
devotees of the “roaring game” amongst whom he was so 
singularly popular. A: Dre 
ALEXANDER PITCAITHLEY. 
By the death of Mr Pitcaithley the Society has been robbed 
of one of its most energetic members. .Whether in office or 
out of it, he spared not himself when important work had to be 
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