James Brodie collected and recorded plants, mainly around Edinburgh but also around Brodie Castle in Moray, towards the end of the eighteenth century. He was possibly a contemporary of James Straith of Forres. Most of Brodie's herbarium is in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. He was in regular contact with a number of eminent botanists of his time, including Sir William Jackson Hooker who became Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow and also a Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in England.