viii HISTORIC NOTICE. 
which the Garden now occupies, and fourteen acres of the Field 
or Park of Inverleith, known as Broompark and Quacaplesink, 
were purchased by the Barons of Exchequer from Mr. James 
Rocheid, its owner, in 1820, the lease of the Leith Walk Ground 
being sold. By 1823 all the plants had been transferred to the 
new Garden. 
In 1858, during the Keepership of John Hutton Balfour 
(1808-1884), who succeeded Graham in 1845, a further addition, 
by purchase from the proprietor of Inverleith, of a narrow belt of 
two and a half acres was made to the Garden on the west side ; 
and in 1865 the Caledonian Horticultural Society having resigned 
to the Crown its lease of the ten acres of adjoining ground which 
it had occupied since 1824 as an experimenta] Garden, this 
ground was also made part of the Botanic Garden. Finally the 
present area of the Garden was completed in 1876, when the 
Town Council purchased from the Fettes Trustees twenty-seven 
and three-quarter acres of Inverleith property on the west side of 
the Garden and transferred it to the Crown for the purpose of 
' making an Arboretum in connection with the Garden ; the Crown 
at the same time purchased Inverleith House and two and a half 
acres of additional ground. 
In 1879, Alexander Dickson (1836-1887) became Queen’s 
Botanist, Regius Keeper and Professor, and held these appoint- 
ments until his death in 1887. During his term of office the 
Arboretum was opened to the public. 
Surrounded as it now is on all sides by public roads, no 
further extension of the Garden upon its present site can be 
made. 
