Robert Graham

Robert Graham (3 December 1786 – 7 August 1845) was a Scottish physician and botanist.

Life

Graham was born in Stirling the son of Dr Robert Graham,

In 1816 he began lecturing in botany at the University of Glasgow, taking over from Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs following his resignation. He was a major figure in the creation of Glasgow Botanic Gardens, and was the inaugural Chair of Botany at the Glasgow in 1818. In 1820 he moved to Edinburgh to take up the position of Professor of Botany and Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, a role he continued until 1845. In 1821 Graham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Thomas Charles Hope. In 1821 Graham was also elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as President in 1825.

In the 1830s he is listed as living at 62 Great King Street in Edinburgh's New Town.

From 1840 to 1842 he served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

He died at Coldoch in Perthshire on 7 August 1845.

Memberships and positions held Member of the Highland Society, 1821–45 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1821–1845 President of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1840–42 First President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 1836 President of the Medico-Chirugical Society, 1842

Botanical contributions He wrote descriptions of new and rare plants cultivated in the gardens which were published in Edinburgh New Philosophical Magazine, Curtis's Botanical Magazine and Hooker's Companion to the Botanical Magazine.

Among plants he described was the Australian shrub Lasiopetalum macrophyllum.

In fiction

Robert Graham features as a character in Sara Sheridan's novel The Fair Botanists (2021).