APPENDIX. 



I. At a special General Meeting of the Society held on the 1st of 

 October, 1822, for the purpose of electing a Member of the 

 Council in the room of Mr. James Dickson deceased, the fol- 

 lowing Biographical Sketch was read by the Secretary. 



I am unwilling to allow the opportunity which this occasion presents, 

 to elapse without offering a few words relative to the respected in- 

 dividual whose death has caused the vacancy in the Council of the 

 Society which we have this day to fill up. 



Born in an humble station, and in early life following a laborious 

 employment, his active mind devoted itself to explore the science 

 of that art in the practical part of which only he had been in- 

 structed. Passionately devoted to the study of plants and other 

 objects of Natural History the want of education formed but a 

 feeble bar to the progress of his acquirements. His sober and cor- 

 rect habits, and his unceasing perseverance in his favourite pursuits, 

 gave him access to a range in Society to which, in this country, 

 nothing but talent and integrity of conduct can elevate the humble, 

 but from which the man of talent and integrity is never excluded. 



Mr. Dickson was born at Kirke House, in the Parish of Traqu- 

 hair, in the County of Peebles, in the year 1738. In the gardens of 

 the Earl of Traquhair he acquired the rudiments of horticultural 

 knowledge, and coming while very young to England, he improved 

 himself in the Nursery of Mr. Jeffery at Brompton, near London. 



Subsequently and until he began business upon his own account 

 and established a shop in Covent Garden, in the year 1772, he 

 filled several respectable situations as a Gardener. 



It was Mr. Dickson's good fortune, while a young man, to become 

 acquainted with Mr. Lee, the founder of the Nursery at Hammer- 



