[Vol. 2 



202 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



the eighteenth century there were three distinct gardens in 

 Edinburgh. 



The original Edinburgh Garden was founded by Sir Robert 

 Sibbald and Sir Andrew Balfour, physicians, for the cultiva- 

 tion of medicinal plants in order "to safeguard the Practi- 

 tioner against the Herbalist and to enable him to have a cor- 

 rect knowledge of the plants which were the source of the 

 drugs he himself would have to compound." 1 



For this purpose they acquired the lease of a small area of 

 ground near Holyrood, and James Sutherland was secured to 

 look after it and instruct the apprentices and lieges in botany. 

 Such success attended the venture that a piece of the Royal 

 Flower Garden at Holyrood was assigned to the cultivation of 

 medicinal plants and this with the title of Physic Garden be- 

 came the Royal Botanic Garden in Scotland. 



In 1767 the same physicians acquired from the Town 

 Council of Edinburgh a lease of the Garden of Trinity Hos- 

 pital and adjacent ground — a site now partly occupied by 

 the Waverley Station — and Sutherland was appointed to lec- 

 ture on botany as Professor in the Town's College, now the 

 University, and to be in charge of this new Physic or Town's 

 Botanic Garden. Then in 1702 another botanic garden was 

 established by the University — the College Garden — of which 

 Sutherland was also placed in charge. The distance of the 

 two existing gardens being too great from the University, 

 Sutherland resigned the care of the Town's Garden and Col- 

 lege Garden in 1706, but remained King's Botanist, retaining 

 the Keepership of the Royal Botanic Garden, and the Town 



Council appointed a professor to take charge of the Town and 

 College Gardens. There were thus two rival botanical schools 

 with their gardens in Edinburgh, and it was not until the year 

 1739 that the rivalry was terminated by the appointment of 

 Dr. Charles Alston, the then Keeper of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, to the University Chair — a combination which holds 

 to the present day by consent of the Crown and the University. 



1 Balfour, I. Bailey, History of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Notes 

 of the Roy. Bot. Gard., Edinburgh 4: 1904. Historic Notice, pp. v-viii. 



