22 HISTORY OF THE ROVAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 
account may be, he is certain that it will be gratifying, especially 
to Mr. Mackay’s dotantcal friends, to see some faint memorial of 
his merits put upon record. The writer had the pleasure of 
living in habits of intimacy with him during the last three years 
of his life, and has since had the advantage of enjoying the 
friendship and confidence of his surviving brothers. 
A life so short, and spent in study, cannot be expected to 
afford incidents for a formal or extensive biographical narrative. 
Mr. Mackay, indeed, never acted a conspicuous public part ; he 
made no voyage of discovery, he published no botanical work. 
He was cut down almost at his very entrance into public notice. 
The materials therefore being scanty, the narrative must appear 
simple and concise, and not calculated to excite general interest. 
The most promising traces of future eminence will, however, be 
discerned, in the earliness of his passion for botany, his zeal in 
traversing the mountains of Scotland in search of plants, his 
uncommon assiduity in every pursuit he undertook, and the 
acuteness of his discriminating powers, as testified! by the most 
competent of judges, Dr. JAMES EDWARD SMITH, the 
President of the Linnean Society. 
Mr. JOHN MACKAY was born at Kirkcaldy, December 25, 
1772. His father, Mr. Hugh Mackay (who survives him,) is 
professionally a gardener. His mother (who died many years 
ago) was Margaret Mitchel, from Auchinleck in Ayrshire. 
While John was yet a boy at school he discovered a strong 
predilection for the cultivating of plants. Even at the age of 14 
he had formed a very considerable collection of the rarer kinds 
of garden and hot-house plants. This was at Inveresk, whither 
his father had removed. 
In the beginning of 1791 young John was placed in Dickson 
and Company’s? nurseries, Leith Walk, unquestionably the most 
extensive and best conducted in Scotland, and a most excellent 
school for a young botanist. 
‘ In Sowerby’s “ English Botany.” 
, George Don, hereafter referred to, was acquainted with the Dicksons. 
See Gardiner, Flora of Forfarshire, 1848, Introduction, p. xii—/. B. B. 
