Papers correspondence re: Dutch Elm Disease, filed in Box “Dutch Elm Disease” – “Papers 1893 – 1953”.

• Report on the Tenth International Mycology/ Plant Pathology Excursion, held in Aberdeen between August 13th and 20th, 1964. Record of site visits over the period, discusses plant diseases, list of fungi found and their locations.

Folder of postcards and photographs, many annotated by Ewen, from and of Forfar at the turn of the 20th century, presumably all sent by Jane Taylor Ewen, Mill Bank, Forfar to Isaac Bayley Balfour in addition to those stored in Bayley Balfour’s George Don scrapbook, GDS/1.
Includes: 9 postcards
8 photographs of Forfar including one taken at the unveiling of the Don memorial in Forfar churchyard, 08/09/1910 – shows Claridge Druce holding his address and John Knox.
1 pamphlet – “Sixteen Views of Forfar”
1 pamphlet – “A Month in the Country for Working Girls” about a raspberry picking scheme for city girls to work on a Blairgowrie raspberry farm – Jane Taylor Ewen’s cousin is involved; she owns the farm – see Balfour’s Don scrapbook, GDS/1. On reverse of pamphlet is poem written by Willie Taylor, Ewen’s cousin, called ‘Immortality’ (An Ode to Century old rose leaves) – rose leaves thought to have been given to Taylor Ewen’s grandmother by George Don. JTE had to copy out as she could not get a copy. Originally published in “St Andrew”, a parish church magazine. No date. [c.1905]

Plus – 2 photographs of Brechin – not J.T. Ewen’s handwriting on reverse, and postcard to I. Bayley Balfour from Eug. [Eugenius] Warming, Denmark, 21.12.1905 – unrelated to above but found in same folder so kept together.

2 labels for identifying part of the process of India Rubber / Gutta Percha production and 7 book plates on note paper forming a small collection.
Book plates: Churchill Babington, John Hutton Balfour, Henry Collins, Daniel Cresswell, Sir Compton Domvile, William Watson and 1 unidentified.
Accrual: Article: 'India Rubber' by James Collins, formerly Government Economic Botanist and Librarian, Straits Settlement, etc. as published in 'The Cottager and Artisan', September 1897, pp.107-108, published by the Religious Tract Society, London. Also, a card with a poem on it: 'The Twins' by J. Rushton, on the back of which is a Note about the opening hours of the India Office Museum.

•Papers & correspondence re; Sphagnum Moss – use as medical dressing, (1st & 2nd World War references) – including W. Wright Smith’s report to R.A.M.C. (War Dept.) dated 1916 are filed under “Sphagnum Moss as medical dressings” – index “S”

Letter from George Forrest, China Inland Mission, Talifu [Dali], Yunnan, to Isaac Bayley Balfour, 'Regius Keeper', Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, dated 04 April 1905.
Forrest writes that he has received the photographic plates and thanks Balfour for the present of books; he was greatly cheered by his letter as he was beginning to lose heart. Forrest discusses provenance and identification of primulas and cassiope and asks for hints on the packing of bulbs of lilies and orchids. Forrest hopes to leave Talifu [Dali] on 10 April but he is having trouble hiring transport as the Wei Hsi pass at an elevation of 14,000 feet, the only way to Tsekou [Cigu], is infested by robbers, a tribe of aborigines called Lisaws [Lissoos], dispossessed of their lands by the Chinese. ‘Occasionally they make a raid on the caravans crossing from Chu Tien on the Yangtze to Wei Hsi. They have no firearms, but use powerful crossbows and small poisoned arrows which the Chinese are mortally afraid of.’ Longer delay would mean losing many of the spring flowers. Forrest is pleased that Balfour knows of his engagement to Miss Clementina Traill and asks if one of the new species could be named after her. Has received way bill from Cook & Son for the second batch of plants numbering 220 which he sent off on 13 January. Warns that Balfour will hear nothing further for the next ten months as he will not return to Tali until January or February next year [1906]. Mr Bulley wishes him to remain out until at least 1907. Forrest reports that all over Yunnan and the west of China, the locals use the beans and pods of Gleditschia [Gleditsia] sinensis, Lamb. and Sapindus Mukorossi, Gaertn. to wash their clothes.
Plants referenced: Cassiope; Cypripedium; Gleditsia; Lily; Pine; Primula; Sapindus; Saxifrage
Letter has been burnt and there has been some loss.

•1 box of miscellaneous papers and glass plate negatives regarding Bhutan, 1949, also 3 reels of film, now converted to DVD:

• Diary Materials 1, 1949
• Diary Materials 2, 1949
• Transcript of Diaries by David Shepherd - not for reproduction
• letters, mainly from George and Betty Sherriff, Frank Ludlow and David Humphreys
• Christmas cards, mainly from George and Betty Sherriff and Frank Ludlow, usually illustrated with photographs or Margaret Stones illustrations
• small box of 12 glass lantern transparencies, mostly plant portraits - tape around slides very brittle; annotations in danger of being lost, so handle with extreme care
• cine film x 3 - converted to dvd
• 'misc' folder; contains LSH seed lists 1949 documents and key to the cine film
• newspaper cuttings - mostly relating to Bhutan
• 'misc' publications - mostly relating to Bhutan, some by Frank Ludlow

•Papers/ correspondence re: Dutch Elm Disease filed in Box “Dutch Elm Disease” - “Papers 1893 – 1953”

1 black and white photograph mounted on thick grey paper.

Photograph of porters (six in total), with 2 horses further back. By the tree to the left, Betty Sherriff (left) & George Sherriff (right) can be seen on either side.

Writing on the back

[TRANSCRIPTION]

On the way to Kingarapden [Kuenga Rabten]. Halt to press a specimen.
30/Mar/49
49.A.7.3

'A Catalogue of a few of the Rarest and Latest Introduced Plants, cultivated for sale at Don's Botanic Garden and Nursery, Forfar', by G. Don; late curator of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Honorary [Corresponding] Member of the Linnaean Society, London; and late President of the Rational Institute of Dundee.
Catalogue includes greenhouse plants, shrubs and herbaceous plants, is 17 pages longs and contains the following quote from Don at the end: “this catalogue contains but a small proportion of my Herbaceous Collection; which is equaled by few in Britain, and surpassed by none perhaps but the Cambridge one. I have also upwards of three hundred species of Grasses.”
Front cover slightly annotated by former owner Patrick Neill.