1914-15.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 375 



William Arthur, M.D.. Botanist to the King in 

 Scotland, 1715-1716. By Professor Bayley Balfour. 

 F.R.S. 



(Read 12th November 1914. 



Some years ago I presented to the Society a short 

 history of the Royal Botanic Garden, of its Regius Keepers 

 and of its Principal Gardeners, which has been the basis 

 of the historic sketch which appears in the small guide 

 for the use of visitors to the Garden. One interesting fact 

 discovered in the course of the investigation for the pre- 

 paration of the story was that the name of a Professor of 

 Botany who was Regius Keeper had been dropped entirely 

 from the published record. In the sketch which I present 

 now I have brought together all the facts I have been able 

 to gather regarding this Professor — Dr. William Arthur. 



A septuagenarian numismatist, as was James Suther- 

 land. King's Botanist, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, and Professor of Botany, at the close of the reign 

 of Queen Anne, is not the person likely to be selected, 

 if choice were ottered, for the post of administrator of a 

 Botanic Garden in which a collection of living plants had 

 to be maintained on scientific lines up to date, nor is 

 it likely that a course of instruction in Botany to youth 

 would be efficiently carried on under a teacher of this 

 description. It is not surprising, therefore, that on the 

 accession of King George I the office of King's Botanist, 

 with care of the Royal Physic Garden — a Household 

 appointment, and therefore held only during pleasure, — 

 which Sutherland had filled during the two preceding- 

 reigns, was not conferred upon him. The needs of 

 political patronage probably operated in the direction of 

 encouraging a change of personnel, but on the facts, even 

 if Sutherland were not acquiescent in the change, it can 

 hardly be protested that the time had not arrived when a 

 new appointment was imperative. 



The new appointment was not. as it happened, an 

 advantage either to the Garden or to the teaching. We 

 are introduced — as the warrant I transcribe here tells — 

 to the name of Dr. William Arthur : — 



