Background
He was born in Stirling the son of Doctor Robert Graham, physician.
He was born in Stirling the son of Doctor Robert Graham, physician.
University of Edinburgh. University of Glasgow.
After studying at Stirling Grammar School he continued first to Glasgow University and then to Edinburgh University where he qualified as a doctor in 1808. He trained further at Street Bartholomew"s Hospital, London, where he qualified as a surgeon. He then returned to Scotland to practice at Glasgow Royal Infirmary 1812-1813 and 1816-1819.
He began lecturing in Botany in 1816 at Glasgow University, 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 on the role of Professor of Botany and Medicine at Edinburgh University, a role he continued until 1845.
He was also physician to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Regius Keeper (1820–1845) of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. In the 1830s he is listed as living at 62 Great King Street in the centre of Edinburgh"s Second New Town.
He died at Coldoch in Perthshire on 7 August 1845.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1821-1845
President of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1840-1842
First President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 1836
President of the Medico-Chirugical Society, 1842
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.
Member of the Highland Society, 1821-1845.