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• Draft copy of an article titled ‘The New Plant Houses at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh’ (stored in the ‘R’ box) • History and development of the garden • Accounts, 1764-1876 (incomplete) • Staff Records (incomplete) • Probationer Gardener records (1889-1935) • Records relating to education at RBGE • Photographs • Maps • Papers relating to regional gardens – Dawyck, Benmore and Logan • Plant flowering records (phenology registers) • Plant records, including inventories, and registers of plants entering and leaving the garden
3 printed annual reports (3 x 4 pages, 200 x 250mm) of The Botanical Museum & Library at Cambridge University; dated 25 March 1828, 25 March 1829, 25 March 1830. The 1828 report outlines the start of a proper funded botanical museum. Prof Henslow lists present acquisitions and solicits help in augmenting the collection. The 1829-30 reports demonstrate success in increasing the collection of plant samples and publications.
Collection consists of Mairi Planner's research into the Edinburgh nurserymen Downie, Laird and Laing, including material used in exhibiting the research. Mairi's great great grandfather Andrew Robertson Annan worked for the firm in the 1860s before moving to the Ravelston Estate in Edinburgh where he became Head Gardener - in researching him, Planner became interested in the nurserymen he worked for.
Seven samples of wood displayed at the International Forestry Exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1884 - all are labelled with "Sierra Leone, Edinburgh Forestry Exhibition, 1884" - additional markings are as follows:
No 5, Gree-Gree, Greegree, 1884.83.31
Beck, 1884.83.32
Koronko, Coronko, Kronko, 1884.83.39
Oak, [Teak scored out], 1884.83.41
Conta-Cobang, Contabang, Cotan Cobang, 1884.83.43
Koondee, Cundee, 1884.83.46
White Brimstone, 1884.83.47 The Exhibition Catalogue indicates that the Government of Sierra Leone had a stand at the exhibition where they displayed "Specimens of the Woods of the Colony, native, polished 1865, redone 1884" - it is assumed that these may have been part of this display.
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.
Plant labels found by members of the RBGE Horticulture Department and transferred to the Archives: 1: Magnolia acuminata, United States - found to the east of the copse, RBGE; a label intended to hang from the tree, this type of label had the impressed letters painted white by hand, then the entire label was hand painted black - would have been surrounded by a metal holder which has since decomposed - probably dates to around 1940? 2: Ilex laevigata; a temporary label found during excavations for the new Alpine House, 2012 - small label attached to wire which would have been pushed into the ground - probably dates to c.1960? 3: Viburnum dilatatum, c.1960? - temporary label from new Alpine House area. 4: Viburnum farreri - 'layers' - found in Nursery, troughs area - used when 'layering' viburnum - obtaining shoots from roots or branches. 5: Alpinia calcarata 6: Rhododendron hodgsonii 7: LA47
The albums appear to be from William Purdom who travelled and collected plants with Reginald Farrer in Kansu / Gansu, northern China in 1914-1915, but one was compiled by Reginald Farrer and three relate to their collecting trip, so all 5 albums have been stored within the Reginald Farrer collection.