ABSTRACT
John Croumbie Brown was a missionary, botanist and one of the key pioneers of forestry management in Britain. Brown was from a religious family, a grandson of the renowned Presbyterian theologian John Croumbie Brown. After studying at the University of Aberdeen and also being ordained, he set out on a missionary and clerical career, including postings in St Petersburg, Russia, and Cape Town, South Africa. In 1863, he returned to Cape Town, this time as a fully fledged botanist. This published piece is taken from Brown’s April 1877 speech to the Town Council of Edinburgh and the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society. In the speech, he advocates the establishment of a forest school and an arboretum for the city. In doing so, he draws extensively on his international expertise to support his arguments. Brown published widely on several aspects of forestry management, as well as on other matters of botany and on theology.
