ISAAC BAYLEY BALFOUR 
25 
to the dormant Edinburgh Garden not as a tornado destroying all, 
but as a new climate, with storms that remove what is rotten hut 
leave standing what is fit for use. The old palm house, now a tem¬ 
perate house, and the stove, now a house for palms and cycads, still 
remain. But all the rest of the glass ranges, pits, and frames are 
new. The herbarium stands as before, also the large lecture hall. 
But all else lias been reorganised or rebuilt, so as to form a complete 
and extensive institute. The very last addition was only finished 
in 1921, in time for the meeting of the British Association. In the 
new laboratory a demonstration was given by Kidston and Lang 
under 100 microscopes of the newly discovered Devonian fossils—a 
fitting celebration for this last act in the revival which it had taken 
Balfour 31 3 ^ears to complete. 
He entirely reorganised the outside garden. The arboretum was 
absorbed. Trees 30 and 40 feet high were successfully moved on 
specially constructed waggons to fresh and suitable sites. The col¬ 
lections of woody r plants were enriched, and the herbaceous ground 
replanned. But beyond all, the rock garden was created anew on a 
magnificent scale. This was Balfour’s special care. He himself 
nursed shy plants in favoured crannies on rich schistose soil carried 
down on his own shoulders from Ben Lawers. His joy in showing 
them was no less than the pleasure of those who understood the real 
meaning of his success. It may be said that in the rock garden the 
true Balfour stood before you—the enthusiastic lover of plants in 
being : the practical physiologist in the open. His “ ecology 55 was 
superior to that usually so called, for it was not analytic only, but 
constructive. At the back of it all was the fact that as a boy he 
had passed through the potting sheds like any working gardener. No 
doubt he had absorbed from Sadler, the old curator, much ancient 
wisdom ; but it was refined and extended by his own scientific and 
horticultural sense. This, combined with his selection of a highly 
qualified body of leading officials, won for the Edinburgh Garden 
a special fame for growing shy plants. The cultivation in the Garden 
is probably as good as any in Europe, and it has been carried into 
many new and experiment;) 1 lines. 
The real marvel of Balfour’s regime in Edinburgh is that along¬ 
side of the administration of the Garden he found time to keep abreast 
of his science, and to develop the academic side of his duties. How 
efficiently this was done is proved by the stream of scientific gra¬ 
duates who passed through his hands into creditable positions in the 
world. But above all stood his work with the medical students. I 
had heard him from time to time speak of his lectures to them, and 
of his methods; these culminated in his latest years in a course of 
addresses on such moving biological topics of the time as relate 
especially to the medical curriculum. I can imagine nothing more 
stimulating to the mind of a young medical aspirant of parts than to 
hear a man of Balfour’s powers speak plainly out of his vast experi¬ 
ence on such questions. But that last session of 1921 broke him. 
The strain of war, combined with a most cruel personal loss at the 
front, proved cumulative, and nature gave way. Betirement was 
inevitable in 1921, and he moved to a southern home, severing finally 
the ties of a lifetime. 
