18' MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 



This predilection was confirmed and directed by 

 Sutherland's " Hortus Edinburgensis," published in 

 the year 1684. The author is thus characterised by 

 Bishop Nicholson, in his " Scottish Historical Li- 

 brary," "The best advances in botany made in 

 Scotland are owing to the extraordinary skill and 

 industry of Mr. James Sutherland, the present 

 worthy overseer of the Royal and Physic Gardens 

 at Edinburgh, whose happy labours and settlement 

 in that city are justly registered among the many 

 and great benefits for which she will ever be in- 

 debted to the memory of Sir Andrew Balfour ;" and 

 Dr. Walker mentions this performance " as a book 

 I have some respect for, as it was the first on 

 botany I ever perused, when ten years old: con- 

 taining a catalogue both considerable and accurate 

 for that period." 



From the Canongate high-school he was sent to 

 the university,' to prosecute that course of study 

 prescribed by the Church of Scotland to candidates 

 for the sacred ministry within her pale. While 

 engaged in these preparatory labours, about the year 

 1750, his attention was attracted by the museum of 

 Sir Andrew Balfour, the sight of which first inspired 

 him with an attachment to natural history that 

 operated powerfully upon his mind and future pur- 

 suits, and which he never lost. 



It is melancholy to relate the fate of a museum 

 that had cost the collector forty years of unremitted 

 attention, and which, after his death, had been de- 

 posited in the hall of the old college of Edinburgh, 



