HOPE 287 



for only such papers as those " On Rheum palmatum," " On 

 Ferula Assafoetida," "On Eriocaulon septangulare in Scotland," 

 are extant from his pen. Yet John Hope was a botanist inspired 

 by the spirit of research who obtained by scientific experimental 

 work and explained to his pupils facts of plant physiology 

 some of which the botanical world learned from other workers 

 only a hundred years afterwards. It is difficult to account for 

 Hope's reticence. It may be that he intended to give his work 

 to the world in the book upon Botany which had engaged his 

 attention for many years and of which the MS. was in great 

 part ready at the time of his unexpected death in 1786 if so, 

 the botanical world has been the poorer through the want of 

 Hope's book. 



But if Hope did not give cause by published contribu- 

 tions to natural knowledge for his recognition in promoting 

 the advance of Botany, he has always been remembered with 

 gratitude for services of administration which he was peculiarly 

 fitted to render and which profoundly affected the study of 

 Botany in Edinburgh. 



John Hope was born loth May, 1725. The son of Robert 

 Hope, a surgeon in Edinburgh, whose father had become one of 

 the Senators of the College of Justice with the title of Lord 

 Rankeillour. Educated at a famous school in Dalkeith, John 

 Hope, who early showed a liking for Botany, entered the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh as a medical student and became a pupil 

 of Alston. His botanical inclinations tempted him to break the 

 course of his medical studies in Edinburgh to study Botany 

 under Bernard de Jussieu in Paris. Returning to Scotland he 

 graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1750, 

 joined the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh and began 

 medical practice, giving to Botany such time as could be spared 

 from the many ties of a successful practice. In 1760 Alston 

 died, and John Hope became his successor, first of all in 1761 

 as King's Botanist at Holyrood and subsequently as Professor of 

 Botany and Materia Medica in the University. 



Soon after appointment Hope recognised that to continue 

 to hold " colleges " in Materia Medica meant spoliation of his 

 botanical work. The time had come for a separation of the two 



