HIS BOTANICAL TEACHING 13 
to the fact that the botanical class was in a great measure 
ancillary to that of Materia Medica, a practical know- 
ledge of which latter subject was at that time required 
of candidates for a medical degree, diploma, or licence 
by, I believe, all the examining bodies in the United 
Kingdom. 
Now the Glasgow students of botany were, with a few 
exceptions, preparing themselves for the medical profession, 
and a considerable proportion of them at that time looked 
forward to service in the army, navy, India, and the colonies, 
where they would be thrown on their own resources for 
ascertaining the quality of their drugs, which had either under- 
gone a long voyage from England or had to be replaced by 
such substitutes as the practitioner's knowledge of botany 
might enable him to discover. The professor hence devoted 
much time to teaching the botanical characters of the 
principal medical and economic plants. To this end he made 
large coloured drawings of them in flower, fruit, etc., which 
were hung in the class-room when the natural orders to which 
they belonged were being demonstrated, and he passed round 
dried specimens of them taken from his herbarium, or living 
ones from the garden when they were to be had, together 
with samples of the drugs or other products which they 
yielded. 
It remains to allude to the class excursions, which have 
always been, and still happily are, a prominent feature of the 
botanical teaching in the Scottish Universities. Of these 
there were three : two, on Saturdays, were habitually to 
Campsie Glen and Bowling Bay respectively. The third, 
which was eagerly looked forward to by the most ardent of 
the students, took place at the end of June. It was to some 
good botanising ground in the Western Highlands. As many 
as thirty students have taken part in these larger excursions, 
each provided with as small a kit as possible, a vasculum, and 
apparatus for drying plants. They were often accompanied 
by students from Edinburgh, and sometimes by eminent 
botanists, British and foreign. In those days there were few 
inns in the Western Highlands, and fewer coaches, and the 
roads were bad. On one of my father's first excursions he 
provided a marquee to hold the party, which was transported 
in a Dutch wagon drawn by a Highland pony ; and for 
supplies the party depended on the flocks and fowls of the 
