Xll 



Neemuch, Central India, on October 28, 1835, His education was 

 begun at the parish school of Lasswade, Midlothian ; thence he went 

 to the Grammar School at Dalkeith, and subsequently to the Academy 

 and University of Edinburgh. After graduating M.D. and L.E.C.P. 

 in 1856, he entered the service of the Honourable East India Company, 

 as Assistant-Surgeon, in 1858, and retired in 1888. We have no 

 particulars of his early life, but he seems to have taken up botany 

 soon after his arrival in India, for in 1863 he published an account of 

 the ' Flora of the Jhelum District of the Punjab.' This was followed 

 by a ' Catalogue of the Plants of the Punjab and Sindh,' in 1869, and 

 other papers on economic and geographical botany. He had already 

 long been in communication with Kew, where his first collection of dried 

 plants, comprising between 300 and 400 species, was received in 1862. 

 These plants were from the districts named in the foregoing titles, and 

 included little that was actually new to science ; but the specimens 

 were so carefully selected and so well dried that they were valuable on 

 that account. In 1872 he was appointed British Commissioner to 

 Ladak, where he continued collecting on a small scale, and transmitted 

 his plants to Kew. 



Dr. Aitchison's more active career in scientific pursuits began, how- 

 ever, when he accompanied the troops under General (now Lord) 

 Roberts into the Kuram Valley, Afghanistan, in 1878, when he served 

 with the 29th Punjab Eegiment, Native Infantry. The following year 

 he was attached to the force as botanist, and during 1879 and 1880 he 

 very thoroughly explored the country from Thai to the Shutar Gardan, 

 at elevations ranging from 2,000 feet up to 13,000 feet, on Mount 

 Seratigah, and 15,000 feet on Mount Sikaram. The collection of dried 

 plants of 1879 consisted of 950 species, represented by 10,000 speci- 

 mens, and was published in the eighteenth volume of the ' Journal of 

 the Linnean Society.' Nearly as large a collection was made in 1880, 

 and this was published in the nineteenth volume of the same Journal. 

 Subsequently, Dr. Aitchison was appointed Naturalist to the Afghan 

 Delimitation Commission, and on that expedition, during 1884-85, he 

 made his most important collections, both botanical and zoological. 



The route was from Quetta through Northern Baluchistan, and thence 

 northward, touching the Helmund, in about 63 longitude ; up this river, 

 onward into the valleys of the Harut and Hari Eud rivers, and thence 

 to Meshed. Subsequently an excursion was made into Eussian Turkes- 

 tan, as far east as the Morgab river. 



The country traversed is noted for its vegetable productions, espe- 

 cially drugs, many of uncertain origin, and although he made a general 

 collection, Aitchison applied himself, successfully, to the investigation 

 of their sources. His botanical collection on this journey comprised 

 about 800 species, and 10,000 specimens. It is the subject of a memoir 

 in the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society ' (2nd series, Botany, 



