THE STORY OF THE GARDENS 103 



propitiate Dr. Johnson's Manes by describing 

 the Edinburgh Garden as a branch from Kew. 

 It is, in fact, an older institution, founded in 

 Charles II. 's reign, and now grown into a model, 

 both of utile and duke, worthy the Modern 

 Athens. The point I have to make is that 

 William Macnab was succeeded at Edinburgh 

 by his son James Macnab, godfather of the 

 Cupressus Macnabiana, etc., who managed this 

 garden till his death, 1878, and whose only son, 

 William Ramsay Macnab, bade fair, through 

 a too short life, to continue the family distinc- 

 tion in the botanical world. 



This botanist by birth and birthplace was a 

 schoolfellow of mine, whose early career deserves 

 notice. His masters could have seen little 

 promise in such a scholar, for, under the regime 

 then styled education, our lessons simply did not 

 interest him, and I often wondered how he 

 picked up the quantum of Latin necessary for 

 his medical examinations. But at fourteen he 

 printed a monograph, either on ferns or on sea- 

 weeds, of which I had a copy but cannot lay 

 hands on it. At the same age he gave a lecture 

 on plant life, illustrated by diagrams prepared by 

 himself. He also excited the wondering admira- 



