252 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1905 



by foreign correspondents ; and aided by the collection of a 

 pupil (Mr Patrick Murray of Livingston, West Lothian), he, 

 in the same year, instituted in a portion of the garden 

 surrounding Holyrood House the first Botanic Garden in 

 Scotland, being the second existing in Great Britain. In 

 1676, through the helpful interest of the Magistrates of the 

 City, there was conceded a part of the Trinity Garden adjoin- 

 ing the College Church for the formation of a Physic Garden, 

 and over both of these was appointed James Sutherland to 

 be " Intendant." Still later, in 1702, another Botanic Garden 

 was established in Edinburgh in the neighbourhood of the 

 College Buildings. Thus in the early years of the eighteenth 

 century the City of Edinburgh could boast of the possession 

 of three distinct Botanic or Physic Gardens — the Eoyal 

 Garden at Holyrood, the Town's Garden near Trinity Hospital, 

 and the College Garden in the grounds of the University. 

 From being severally under the care of the said James 

 Sutherland, who in 1683 published his " Hortus Medicus 

 Edinburgensis," these three gardens were afterwards separ- 

 ated and committed to the charge of rival custodians, and 

 so continued for upwards of a quarter of a century ; but in 

 1724, when the College Garden on account of dilapidation 

 was converted to other uses, and the office of custodian of 

 the Town's Garden became vacant, they were again united 

 through the appointment by the Town Council of the Keeper 

 of the Royal Garden and the Regius Professor of Botany in 

 the University to fill the vacancy. In 1763 an attempt was 

 made to secure a site in the neighbourhood of the Meadows 

 on which to amalgamate the Gardens; but this being found 

 impracticable, they were removed to ground on the North 

 side of Leith Walk, where they continued till 1820, when 

 Robert Graham, King's Botanist, selected the property of 

 Inverleith as a more suitable situation, and purchased through 

 the Barons of the Exchequer 14 acres of the field known as 

 Broompark and Quacaplesink. Gradually, during the Keeper- 

 ship of Prof. John Hutton Balfour, additions were made to the 

 ground already acquired, till in 1876, through the purchase 

 from the Fettes Trustees of over 27 additional acres by the 

 Town Council for the laying out of an Arboretum, the 

 Garden assumed its present spacious proportions. 



