26 HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 
In the management of Messrs. Dicksons’ nurseries, Mr. Mackay 
made great progress in the knowledge of the culture of plants ; 
nor was he inattentive to matters more strictly botanical. He 
formed, in a plot of ground in the nurseries, a most extensive 
arrangement of hardy herbaceous plants, with numbered tallies. 
He made a similar arrangement of plants indigenous to Ses 
He likewise began the culture of the rarer alpine plants, i 
which he proved very successful. It is proper to add, that in 
these pursuits, as well as in his long journeys to the Highland 
mountains, he met with the greatest encouragement from the 
liberality and scientific taste of Messrs. Dicksons the proprietors. 
Mr. Mackay’s merit had now become known to several of the 
eminent naturalists of London. He was elected an Associate of 
the Linnean Society of that city, on the 16th of February 1796: 
In the course of this year also he received a very flattering 
testimony to his botanical proficiency from Dr. Smith, the 
President of that Society. This was contained in the elegant 
periodical work, intituled Euglzsh Botany (of which Dr. Smith 
may be considered as the author, and Mr. Sowerby as the 
artist,) at the article Eriophorum alpinum. “We are obliged for 
wild specimens (they say) to Mr. John Mackay of Edinburgh, 
a most diligent and skilful investigator of the vegetable kingdom, 
by whose communications we have often been enriched.” 
1In this work Mr. Mackay is acknowledged as a contributor of rare British 
plants at the following articles :—Draba incana [t. 388], Sison verticillatum 
[t. 395, Carum verticillatum], Cardamine hastulata [t. 469, Arabis petrzea], 
Cerastium alpinum [t. 472], Veronica alpina [t. 484], Potentilla aurea [t. 561, 
P. alpestris], petepta aquatica [t. 732], Eriocaulon septangulare [t. 733} 
Azalea procu t. 865, Loiseleuria procumbens], Sibbaldia procumbens 
[t. 897, Potentilla ‘Sibbaldi}, Juncus castaneus[t. goo], Rumex digynus [t. gro, 
Oxyria digyna], Stellaria cerastoides [t. 911, Cerastium trigynum], Gnapha- 
lium sylvaticum [t. 913, G. sylvaticum, var. norvegicum], Carex filiformis 
[t. 904], Schoenus rufus [t. toro, Scirpus rufus], Lichen lanatus [t. 846, 
Cornicularia lanata], venofus [t. 887, Peltidea venosa], croceus, [t. 498, 
Solorina crocea], Splachnum mnioides, and several others. 
[Without any profession of presentation of a complete list of species under 
which Mackay’s work is referred to in English Botany by Sir James Edward 
Smith or his successors, I may add the following names to Dr. Neill’s list 
above :—Draba hirta (D. rupestris), t. 1338; Thlaspi hirtum (Lepidium 
hirtum), t. 1803; Raphanus Raphanistrum, t. 856; Raphanus sce oe 
t. 1643 ; Silene hibit t. 465 ; Lychnis Viscaria, t. 788 ; Arenaria r 
