Letter from Isaac Bayley Balfour, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to George Forrest in Yunnan dated 13 February 1905.
Balfour apologises for not writing earlier. "Today I am happy in being able to tell you that your case of plants has arrived - and what a treat you have given me! I know something of the difficulties of collecting but my experience of obstacles pales before your description of the conditions under which you have had to work. Yet what a result! Yous specimens are splendid and their interest botanically intense."
Balfour goes on to discuss some Primulas, including Primula japonica and Primula muscarioides (new to Balfour); Rhododendrons, including Rhododendron campylocarpum, and others unknown to Balfour. Saxifraga, Cassiope, Gentians, Corydalis, Clematis, Viburnum, Lonicera, Eukianthes, Pieris, Plumbago, Fritillaria, Lilium, Berberis, Polygonum, Trollius, Cornus, and Orchids including Cypripedium.
Balfour reassures Forrest that his collecting and accounts are all excellent, and finishes with a small update from Edinburgh: Tagg has just returned from a trip to Australia and the Treasury is appointing a committee to go into the whole question of our Herbarium and the necessary accomodation there and this I hope will result in immediate action. Mr. Jeffrey, Miss Traill and others continue to work there as heretofore.

3 Oak survey notebooks relating to oak specimens collected by J.Cousens in the 1960s which are now in the Herbarium

5 maps: Baghdad, Resht, Teheran, Tabriz and India and the adjacent countries.
1 box of personal and miscellaneous papers

• includes paper on 'A Survey of the Anatomy of the Rhododendron Leaf in relation to the Taxonomy of the Genus' by S.F. Hayes, J. Keenan and J.M. Cowan : for publication in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 21 (1), 1–34.
• 'The Rhododendrons of India' by J.M. Cowan.

Set of material relating to David Wilkie and his work including:
book of typed notes on gentians
Wilkie's typewriter
3 photograph albums of plants at RBGE
wooden box of microscope slides