Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 457 



Mr. A. Symington ; Mr. Isaac Anderson, S. S. C. ; Dr. Spittal ; Charles Wm. 

 Wright, Esq., &c. The croupiers were Mr. Murray of the Glasgow Botanic 

 Gardens ; Mr. Mackintosh, Dalkeith Park ; and Mr.. Smith, Hopetoun House. 

 Among the company were many eminent horticulturists, assembled from all 

 parts of Scotland, to do honour to the merits of Dr. Neill. 



After the presentation, and the usual loyal toasts had been proposed. 

 The Chairman said : " My first duty is to return you my sincere thanks for 

 the high honour you have done me in placing me in my present situation on 

 such a day, a day of no ordinary felicity to me, and to those gentlemen who 

 are here assembled, when we have amongst us such a highly respectable and 

 learned individual, and such a perfectly successful horticulturist, as Dr. Neill. 

 (Cheers.) Whatever I might say in his honour is already in your minds ; 

 and the feelings which have brought you here render praise from me altogether 

 unnecessary. I do not know where I should begin in any observations I may 

 make upon that gentleman. I have known him long; but I did not know him 

 before he was a most enthusiastic horticulturist. I found him four and thirty 

 years ago devoted to that pleasant science ; and I found him not then a 

 novice ; for even then he would bear a comparison with the most intelligent 

 of his compeers. (Cheers.) He has never ceased, from that time up to this 

 day, to continue in that most desirable and gratifying pursuit; and he has 

 never permitted an opportunity to pass without embracing it to bring any 

 plant into notice which might be Useful ; and one of his chief excellences is, 

 that he never permits an opportunity to pass without endeavouring to confer 

 some favour upon horticulturists. Many of the young men whom I see 

 around me can bear testimony to this, that when they have devoted their 

 energies under their master's directions to produce something that may attract 

 notice, they at once look up to Dr. Neill, and they invariably receive from 

 him kindness, attention, and courtesy. (Cheers.) It is that feeling that has 

 brought so many of us together at this time. But what are we ? We are 

 only a trifling portion of those gentlemen who have resolved to express their 

 admiration of Dr. Neill. There are here but two or three of his neighbours. 

 His admirers stretch not only over Great Britain ; they stretch over the 

 Continent ; they have found their way into Asia ; and very many of the sub- 

 scribers to the Neill testimonial live in America. (Cheers.) I cannot look 

 upon this scene, and contrast it with the time to which I before alluded, 

 without feelings somewhat peculiar. Then our exhibitions were little cared 

 for by the pubHc till Dr. Neill excited them to attend, by bringing forward 

 annually the choice productions of the Horticultural Society, of which he was 

 then, and has since continued to be, the indefatigable secretary. We, the 

 practical gardeners, also brought forward our productions, and with them we 

 brought our little descriptions of them ; but, as you may expect from what 

 you have heard of me, they were ill filled up. (Laughter and cheers.) 

 But they never appeared before the public in that state ; they got a new coat 

 on their back, and we got all the honour of it; but there sits the gentleman 

 who did it. (Cheers.) Then look at the Horticultural Memoirs from the 

 year 1809 to the present day; look at the whole of them. It was this gentle- 

 man's careful hand that went over every one of them, generally speaking, and 

 put them into a decent dress. We see horticulture now raised to a position 

 of great eminence ; we see people looking upon the wonderful productions of 

 nature wherever they get an opportunity of doing so ; and the gentleman who 

 assisted us to attain this pitch of eminence was my friend Dr. Neill. (Cheers.) 

 I have no need to say a word more ; you all know, better than I do, his 

 merits. I live at a distance ; Dr. Neill is among you every day : but I see 

 that he is every where respected. I beheve that he is a gentleman of high 

 attainments, of cultivated mind ; and I see that he has taken the highest 

 honours which science confers upon any of her worshippers (cheers) ; and 

 I am sure, judging from ourselves, he could not get these honours unless 

 he well deserved them. (Cheers.) There are no fewer than GOO bre- 

 thren united together; and we who are here represent our brethren scat- 



