History of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. 
PRINCIPAL GARDENERS. 
Of the chiefs of the Garden-staff of the Royal Botanic Garden 
in its earliest years we have at present no record. Search through 
documents relating to the period may bring to light some 
information regarding them, but search of the kind demands 
more leisure than I am able to claim. From the year 1764, in 
which the Garden, under Professor John Hope, was for the first 
time recognised as claiming the direct financial support of the 
Crown, we have a record which, imperfect though it be, enables 
us to draw up the following list of the names of men who have 
held the position of head of the Garden-staff here :— 
John Williamson, eer este 1756 (?)-1780. 
Malcolm M‘Coig, Principal Gardener, 1782-1789. 
Robert Menzies, Principal Pantene 1789-1799(?) 
John Mackay, Principal Gardener 1800-1802. 
George Don, Principal Gardener, 1802-1806(?) 
Thomas Sommerville, Principal Gardener, 1806(?)-1810. 
William Macnab, Principal Gardener, 1810-1848. 
James Macnab, Principal Gardener, 1849-1878. 
John Sadler, ee 1879-1882. 
Robert Lindsay, Cur 1883-1896. 
Adam Dewar Richeeed, Head tae dae 1896-1902. 
Robert Lewis Harrow, Head Gardener, 1902. 
I may say a word in explanation of the variation in title given 
to the chief of the Garden-staff in the foregoing table. All the 
earlier chiefs of the Garden-staff had the official designation, 
Principal Gardener. At the end of the eighteenth century it had 
{Notes, R.B.G., Edin., No. XII, 1904.| j B 
