1922-23.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 195 



their high power were ever a source of protest and professional 

 dismay to the officials who superintend these matters for the 

 Government service. His workroom was " engined " like a 

 submarine and usually a mass of specimens and paper. I 

 think as he grew older his ingenium perferridum grew greater. 

 I confess I never knew any of us who could attempt to keep 

 pace. 



He had a Spartan devotion to duty. Illness or fatigue 

 rarely caused him to stay his hand. A little more indulgence 

 to himself, acquiescence in a little lower standard in the 

 execution of his duties, these would have saved us the regret 

 of his sudden passing. But that was not his way. Work or 

 play, he was out to win, and no half -measures. If he exacted 

 fair measure from his staff, he took over-measure upon himself. 

 We have in this world our schools and schoolmasters, and as 

 we survey the road we have travelled, our minds, and our 

 hearts, do not dwell ^mth. happy memories on those who let 

 us do as we liked, but rather far on those who held vis to the 

 course and knew us for what we were. 



His works are an enduring monument of his possession of 

 the useful qualities of force and tact. Short as was his time 

 at Glasgow, he left his mark on both Laboratory and Botanic 

 Garden. Short as was his period at Oxford, he saw the re- 

 juvenescence of the Oxford Botanic Garden and the establish- 

 ment of the Annals of Botany. He returned to Edinburgh 

 in 1888. In the face of many adverse conditions, such as 

 financial stringency in the matter of Government support, 

 especially in the earlier years, he has transformed the place. 

 Step by step, by tactful persistency, he has established the 

 laboratories, extended the grounds, rebuilt the plant-houses. 

 He has left the Edinburgh Botanic Garden as a Mecca of 

 the Horticulturist. To many who knew him not as a botanist 

 he appealed as a distinguished exponent of the gardening 

 craft. His acquaintance with the plants of cultivation, his 

 exact knowledge of their origin and how they came to the 

 Botanic Garden, his experience of their needs and treatment 

 would have served as more than adequate equipment for a 

 curator who had spent his days on httle else. 



These notes are of too brief compass to permit of reference 

 to all his other activities. His many students may prefer 

 to recall him as he showed himself, vasculum on shoulder, 



