104, 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART 1. 



both in England and Scotland. Among these, in the latter 

 country, Dr. Walker mentions the Duke of Athol, the Earls of 

 Bute, of Loudon, of Hyndford, and of Panmure ; Sir James 

 Nasmyth, Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun, Sir Archibald Grant, and 

 others. By the exertions of these gentlemen, planting became 

 very general in Scotland between the years 1730 and 1760. 

 {Walker's Hebiides, vol. i. p. 210.) 



Sir Archibald Grant began to plant in 1719. The following 

 is an extract taken from a commonplace book kept by this 

 gentleman, and published in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. xi. 

 p. 48. : — "In 1715," Sir Archibald says, " by the indulgence of 

 a vevy worthy father, I was allowed, though then very young, to 

 begin to enclose and plant, and provide and prepare nurseries. 

 At that time there was not one acre on the whole estate enclosed, 

 nor any timber upon it but a few elms, sycamore, and ash, about 

 a small kitchen-garden adjoining to the house, and some strag- 

 gling trees at some of the farmyards, with a small copsewood, 

 not enclosed, and dwarfish, and browsed by sheep and cattle." 



It is probable that most of the foreign trees and shrubs that 

 were introduced into Scotland previously to the middle of the 18th 

 century, were raised from seeds in the different localities. There 

 could have been few, if any, public tree nurseries in Scotland 

 previously to that period ; and the carriage of trees from Eng- 

 land must have been extremely tedious and expensive. The 

 Earl of Haddington was, in all probability, the originator of 

 nurseries in Scotland, as well as the father of artificial plant- 

 ations hi that country, on a large scale for profit. John Reid, 

 the author of the Scots Gardener, published in 1683, mentions 

 Hugh Wood, gardener at Hamilton, dealing in fruit trees and 

 numerous other garden articles, whether English, Dutch, or 

 Scotch, but he makes no mention of forest trees. Sutherland's 

 ■Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis, published in 1683, is stated in 

 the titlepage to be sold by " Mr. Henry Ferguson, seed mer- 

 chant, at the head of Black Friar's W^ynd." That there were 

 plants, trees, &c., sold by the gardeners in Scotland, is ob- 

 vious from the following advertisement, dated 1721 : — " There is 

 to be sold at John Weir's, gardener at Heriot's Hospital, and 

 at James Weir's, son to the said John, his house at Tolcross, at 

 the end of the West Port, all sorts of garden seeds, fruit and 

 barren trees, and evergreens, as also flowers of the best kinds." 

 Archibald Eagle of Edinburgh was seedsman to the Society of 

 Improvers of Agriculture in Scotland in 174'3; and, the Society 

 having been established in 1723, this firm, now Eagle and 

 Henderson, may date from the latter period. They had, how- 

 ever, no nursery for at least half a century afterwards. Dr. 

 Walker seems to indicate that public nurseries for forest trees 

 began to be established in Scotland between the years 1730 and 



