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A collection of 13 letters purchased at auction in 2008, written by Reginald Farrer and most likely sent to the British Diplomat Ernest Frederick Gye C.M.G., though Farrer tends to refer to him as his “Poison”, “Viper” or “Venom”.
Gye's mother was the singer Dame Emma Albani and his father was Ernest Gye, the lessee of Covent Garden theatre. Gye entered the Foreign Office in 1903, became Second Secretary in 1908 and Councillor in 1924. He served for some years in Tehran in the earlier part of his career (and where he was when these letters were written) before being appointed Minister and Consul General in Tangier in 1933. Three years later he was made Minister Plenipotentiary in Venezuela, retiring in 1939.
The 13 letters were written in Upper Burma (now Myanmar), mainly from Hpimaw and Nyitadi, and date between May 1919 and September 1920, the last being written only five weeks before his death. The letters are liberally peppered with nicknames and gossip, and the identity of everyone mentioned may never be known; for example, his 1919 travelling companion, fellow plant collector Euan Cox, is often referred to by the name “Jumps”. In amongst intimate information and personal references are descriptions of the country, people met and plants collected.

•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”

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

Page showing the first in a series of three pages outlining the vast number of volumes of Flora of Turkey being produced by Peter Davis. This page shows volumes 1 to 14 in a set of cabinets, hand drawn using coloured pencils, with a cut out picture of a cat with ribbon attached for a bow, and a further picture of a cow cut out to create an artwork on the back wall. (Decoupage / Collage)

Page showing the last in a series of three pages outlining the vast number of volumes of Flora of Turkey being produced by Peter Davis. This page shows volumes 30 to 42 in a set of cabinets, with Peter Davis in front, asleep in an armchair with a map of Turkey in his lap and an old-fashioned pen on fire, hand drawn using ink and coloured pencils, with a cut out picture of a vase and a gravy boat pasted on top of the shelves. (Decoupage / Collage)

Museum label that was used on display with Forrest's Rhododendron giganteum / Rhododendron protistum.
Label states 'Rhododendron Giganteum, Forrest. Cross section of stem of a tree fully 90 feet high. This section was taken 12 feet from the base.'

The Reginald Farrer collection comprises correspondence between Reginald Farrer and his family (his mother in particular), E.A. Bowles, John Buchan, Sir Francis Younghusband, Ernest Gye, Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour and others as detailed below. It also includes paintings, photographs, 35mm slides, glass plate negatives and lantern slides covering mainly his two plant collecting expeditions to China in 1914-15 and Burma in 1919-1920, as well as scripts for plays written by Farrer.