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Origins of the Botanical Society of Scotland

On the 8th February 1836 a meeting was held at 15 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, the home of Dr John Hutton Balfour who later became  Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and Regius Professor of Botany, Keeper of the Garden and Queen's Botanist in Scotland.  The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the formation of a Botanical Society.

The discussions resulted on the 17th March 1836 in the institution of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. Throughout its auspicious history, the Society has had a symbiotic relationship with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; the donation in 1863 of the Society's herbarium of many thousands of specimens and in 1872 of its valuable library formed the nucleus around which the Garden's extensive Herbarium and Library have been built.

Field Meetings are an important part of the Society's programme

Above: Members of the Society sort their collections following a successful fungal foray at Bonaly, Autumn 2005.
Photograph © Karen Heron.

Below: Dr Stephan Helfer demonstrates
the key characters of  a Russula,
Vogrie, October 2006