1140 



Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, 



Botanical ExpedUion to Oregon. 



At one of the late meetings of this Society, Andrew Murray, Esq., 

 W.S., read a paper ' On some Insects from the Rocky Mountains, 

 received from the Botanical Expedition to Oregon, under Mr. Jef- 

 frey,' which was prefaced by the following remarks : — 



" Most of the members of this Society who are botanists and horti- 

 culturists are probably aware that an expedition to Oregon and the 

 Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of procuring seeds and plants from 

 that quarter, has, some time since, been organized, by an association 

 of gentlemen interested in the arboriculture and horticulture of Scot- 

 land, and is at present in the course of being carried out. It will, 

 perhaps, be interesting to those who have not heard of the associa- 

 tion, if I give a brief notice of its origin and present position. 



" I do not know who first introduced the plan of sending out col- 

 lectors to different countries, to procure seeds and plants as a com- 

 mercial speculation ; but during the last half century it has been 

 carried to a very considerable extent by our principal nurserymen, 

 many of whom have fitted out expeditions at a large cost ; by which 

 means many very valuable plants have been introduced into this 

 country. Other expeditions, of a like nature in all but their commer- 

 cial object, have been sent out by private individuals or societies. 

 The London Horticultural Society have sent out several collectors to 

 different quartei's ; and it was the success of one of them which may 

 be said to have given rise to this association. The one 1 allude to 

 was that of Douglass to the river Columbia, where, the climate being 

 much the same as our own, most of the plants he introduced have 

 been found hardy, and have readily been naturalized. It was to him 

 that we owe the Abies Douglassii, the Ribes sanguinea, or flowering 

 currant, our most beautiful Pentstemons, and many other flowering 

 plants. The success of this expedition, and the accounts received 

 from Douglass and others of the magnificence and beauty of the pine- 

 trees in that country, particularly struck Mr. Patton, of the Cairnies, 

 in Perthshire, — a gentleman who has more peculiarly directed his 

 attention to the pine tribe, and is at present engaged in a series of 

 experiments on their cultivation, and suitableness for this climate, 

 which will be doubly valuable, from their practical nature. It struck 

 Mr. Patton that it might be possible to get a sufficient number of 

 gentlemen to combine together to raise funds to send out a collector, 



