typed transcription of letter from George Don to James Sowerby, 22.05.1799 regarding sending plants to be drawn. Original letter in the British Museum – now Natural History Museum. Letter reproduced in Notes of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, v.iii pt xiv, February 1905
Balfour, Sir Isaac BayleyGeorge Don's day book records the orders for plants coming into his Botanic garden and Nursery at Doo Hillock / Dove Hillock in Forfar.
Balfour, Sir Isaac BayleyGarden, The – It’s Formation and Furnishing
•Series of Lectures – presumably by Prof. I.B. Balfour – filed with “Balfour, I. Bayley” papers – Box 4 of “Miscellaneous Papers – lecture notes, etc”
•1 box of correspondence with The Royal Scottish Arboriculture Society
•1 box of correspondence with the Annals of Botany
•1 box of correspondence with The University of Glasgow
•1 box of correspondence with Sir David Prain(1857-1944)
•2 boxes of correspondence regarding the Rodriguez (Transit of Venus) Expedition (1874) Papers
•5 boxes of correspondence including miscellaneous papers, reprints, lectures and drawings, regarding Socotra
•26 boxes and 1 book of correspondence with various people and organisations
•2 boxes of miscellaneous personal papers
•1 box of miscellaneous papers regarding applications for chairs
•2 boxes of miscellaneous lectures and lecture notes
•1 box of miscellaneous notes, extracts, reports and addresses
•1 box of plant lists and local plant names
•1 box of post-retirement correspondence with Sir William Wright Smith(1875-1956)
•1 box of miscellaneous papers, reprints and notes
•1 box of papers regarding the Botanic Society Edinburgh Billets 1836-76 (Isaac Bayley Balfour’s personal copies)
•1 box of various distribution maps and schematic drawings
•4 boxes Isaac Bayley Balfour 'grandfather’s' papers and notes [I believe 'grandfather is likely Isaac Bayley Balfour, and it's how the donor referred to him, as opposed to it being IBB's grandfather] - to one of these boxes ("box 8 of 16") has been added (June 2019) an auction catalogue from Dulau and Co. Ltd. "Recent Useful Gardening Books"; "Botanical & Horticultural Works from the libraries of the late Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour FRS, C. Harman Payne FRHS, William Watson of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and other sources" No. 132, Part I, October 1925.
•1 box of M/S papers – monograph on figures
•1 folder of a collection of original drawings by John Nugent Fitch(1849-1927), for Botany of Socotra
•Personal diary of a visit to Socotra in 1880
•1 box of reprints and correspondence regarding Socotra
•I.B. Balfour ‘New Species of Rhododendron’ (copy belonged to G. Forrest so filed in the Forrest collection)
•3 letters dated 1877 -1878 from Joseph Decaisne, to I. Bayley Balfour filed with “Balfour, I. Bayley” correspondence under “Decaisne, J”
Correspondence from Archibald Dickson, (brother of Prof. Alex. Dickson, Regius Keeper 1880 -87) re: late brother’s affairs dated 1889 filed with “Balfour, I. Bayley” correspondence under “Dickson, Archibald”
•Collection of signatures (originals), including Carl v Linné, Archibald Menzies and initials (received with papers of Isaac Bayley Balfour).
Balfour, Sir Isaac Bayley'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.
•Biographical notes, a copy of his memoir, correspondence regarding his memoir (1874-1932), and a draft copy of catalogue of plants (1912), copies of letters, a copy of his catalogue prepared by I.B. Balfour and William D. Kemp, and a copy of ‘Faculty of Advocates: Cabinet of Coins (James Sutherland)’ (1856)
Sutherland, James