last chapters. In the former Prof. Vines has linked together Morison and Ray, the founders of Systematic Botany in this country, whilst in the last Prof. Bayley Balfour has expanded what was originally intended as a sketch of his father, the late Prof. J. Hutton Balfour, into a very interesting account of his precedessors in the Edinburgh chair from the year 1670 almost down to the present time.
The subjects treated, the authors and the order of arrangement are as follows:—
| Subject | Born | Died | Author |
| *Robert Morison | 1620 | 1683 | } Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S. |
| *John Ray | 1627 | 1705 | |
| *Nehemiah Grew | 1641 | 1712 | Mrs Arber |
| *Stephen Hales | 1677 | 1761 | Francis Darwin, F.R.S. |
| John Hill | 1716 | 1775 | T. G. Hill |
| *Robert Brown | 1773 | 1858 | Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S. |
| *Sir William Hooker | 1785 | 1865 | Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S. |
| *The Rev. J. S. Henslow | 1796 | 1861 | The Rev. Prof. Geo. Henslow |
| John Lindley | 1799 | 1865 | Prof. Frederick Keeble |
| *William Griffith | 1810 | 1845 | Prof. W. H. Lang, F.R.S. |
| *Arthur Henfrey | 1819 | 1859 | Prof. F. W. Oliver, F.R.S. |
| *William Henry Harvey | 1811 | 1866 | W. Lloyd Praeger |
| The Rev. Miles Berkeley | 1803 | 1889 | George Massee |
| Sir Joseph Gilbert | 1817 | 1895 | Prof. W. B. Bottomley |
| *William Crawford Williamson | 1816 | 1895 | Dr D. H. Scott, F.R.S. |
| Harry Marshall Ward | 1854 | 1905 | Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. |
| The Edinburgh Professors | 1670 | 1887 | Prof. I. Bayley Balfour, F.R.S. |
* Was the subject of a lecture in the University Course.
The first three chapters deal with the founders of British Botany, Morison and Ray in the systematic field, Grew, the plant anatomist, and Hales the physiologist. These are pioneers and the names of Ray, Grew, and Hales must always remain illustrious in the annals of Botanical Science.
John Hill, with all his versatility, belongs to another plane, but his inclusion here is justified on historical grounds, by the prominent part he played in making known the method of the great Swedish systematist Linnaeus, a method which took deep root and gave an immense stimulus to systematic studies in this country.
