914 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for the purpose ; and in these gardens the plants were invariably arranged 

 according to the Linnean system, which consequently had to be taught. 

 . . . Throughout the course rny father's artistic powers were exercised with 

 chalk and the blackboard ; and he gradually accumulated a magnificent 

 series of folio coloured drawings, especially of medicinal plants, which 

 were suspended in the class-room as occasion required. I well remember 

 the murmur, and even louder expressions of applause, with which he was 

 greeted on taking the chair, when the number or interest of these pic- 

 tures was conspicuous. Before his second year's class had assembled he 

 had published the ' Flora Scotica ' for its use, and an oblong folio of 

 lithographed illustrations of the organs of plants by his own pencil, with 

 twenty-four plates and 327 figures, a copy of which was placed before 

 every two students. During the course three botanising excursions were 

 taken, two in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and one towards the end 

 of June, of five or six days' duration, to the Western Highlands^ usually 

 to the Breadalbane range. This latter was eagerly anticipated by a con- 

 tingent of ten to thirty students, amongst whom were frequent accessions 

 of botanists from Edinburgh and England. Further to stimulate their 

 zeal, he habitually invited the more industrious students to breakfast with 

 him after the class (which was from 8 to 9 a.m.), when he would show 

 them books, and give them, from his store of duplicates, specimens of 

 rare British plants. To conclude this episode of his life, it must be 

 recorded that his success as a lecturer was phenomenal ; his tall figure, 

 commanding presence, flexible features, good voice, eloquent delivery, 

 and urbane manners are vouched for in every obituary notice of him. 

 His lectures were often attended by gentlemen of the city, and even by 

 officers from the barracks three miles distant. The students of his first 

 year's course presented him with a handsome silver vasculum, chased 

 with a design taken from the moss Hookeria lucens, and those of the 

 second year with a richly bound copy in ten volumes of Scott's Poetical 

 Works. . . . Except for short visits to London, Yarmouth, or the High- 

 lands, botanising with Greville or Arnott, and once to Paris, he rarely left 

 home. He was at his desk with pen or pencil by 8 a.m., and never left it 

 much before midnight. The late summer and autumn weeks were fre- 

 quently passed with his family at watering-places on the Clyde, usually 

 at Helensburgh, where he enjoyed the society of two neighbours of 

 scientific tastes and culture, James Smith, Esq., F.R.S., of Jordan Hill, 

 and Lord John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyll, father of the late 

 Duke, who inherited his parent's scientific tastes. In 1837 he purchased 

 a cottage with an acre of ground, ' Invereck,' near Kilmun, on the Holy 

 Loch ; a lovely spot where he could indulge his fondness for gardening. 

 In the touring season he received many English and foreign friends 

 who took Glasgow on their route for the Highlands, both to visit him 

 and to avail themselves of his experience of roads, conveyances, and 

 accommodation. 



M My father's reputation as one of the foremost botanists in this country 

 was confirmed by his success in the Glasgow Chair, and rapidly rose as 

 his successive publications appeared. Very soon he had but one compeer 

 in Great Britain, Dr. Lindley, for Robert Brown towered above both as 

 ' Botanicorum facile princeps.' It was a happy augury for the progress 



