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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

12 black and white photographs that appear to have once been the property of Frederick Orpen Bower, four of them being used as figures in his 1925 publication 'Plants and Man'. The photographers appear to be mainly Skeen and Scowen of the Colombo Apothecaries Co. Ltd, Ceylon [Sri Lanka].
Descriptions of the photographs are as follows:

• Peradeniya Gardens; ‘No. 20’; marked ‘Frontispiece’ with annotated instructions for reproduction in ‘Plants and Man’ by Bower; photo credited in the publication as being ‘Bases of the stems of the Giant Bamboo (Dendrocalamus), in Peradeniya Gardens, Ceylon, with a garden-coolie standing at their foot. Photograph by Mr. Skene.’ [Skeen]. Photograph glued to contemporary stiff board.
• Corypha umbraculifera (Talipot); marked with C.A. Co. (?) Ceylon and stamped with [Apothe]caries Co. Photographers, [Colombo,] Ceylon; ‘218’ glued to reverse; annotated with printing instructions; edited version used as Fig.22A (p.48) in ‘Plants and Man’ as ‘A Talipot Palm (Corypha umbaculifera) in the flowering state’; photograph credited to Mr Skene [Skeen]. Photograph glued to contemporary stiff board.
• Corypha umbraculifera. The last stage of the Talipot; marked with ‘& Co. Ceylon’ - name obscured, and stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; edited version used as Fig.22B (p.49) in ‘Plants and man’ as ‘The same Palm after fruiting. The photographs were taken by Mr. Skene [Skeen], Ceylon.’ Photograph glued to herbarium sheet.
• Bamboo Stems; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; ‘217’ glued to reverse, annotated with printing instructions; edited version used as Fig.86 (p.215) in ‘Plants and man’ as ‘Photograph showing the Bases of Bamboo Stems which may grow over 100 feet high. The stems are marked by rings, each of which is a leaf insertion, and the hollow stem is there supported by a hard transverse plate or septum. Note that at the base, where the leverage will be greatest, the septa are nearest together, so that the resistance will be greatest there. One of the young conical shoots has been cut so as to show the septa, crowded before the shoot has elongated.’ No photography credit given.
• ‘Nos 19 and 20, Giant Bamboos’; this photo marked ‘No.19’; ‘219’ glued to reverse; annotated with printing instructions, including ‘Schimper, make block from this, not from book’; used as Fig.87 (p.217) in ‘Plants and man’ as ‘Group of Giant Bamboos (Dendrocalamus giganteus) in the Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya, Ceylon. Note the man at the foot of the clump which gives the scale : also the successively shorter internodes at the base of the stems, and the curvatures above. (After Schimper.) Compare Frontispiece, and Fig. 86’. Photograph glued to contemporary stiff board.
• Corypha umbraculifera; young Talipot palms, No.519; marked with C.A. Co. Ltd, Ceylon, but other letters seem to have been scored out; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet.
• Caryota urens (Kitul) 144; marked with C.A. Co. Ltd, Ceylon; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet.
• Caryota urens. Branches of the Influorescense of the Kitul Palm shewing development of fruit. marked with Scowen & Co. Ltd (almost scored out), Ceylon; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet.
• Oreodoxa regia; Avenue of Cabbage Palms, Peradeniya Gardens; further annotated with ‘Cabbage Palms, Peradeniya Gardens (Scowen); marked with Scowen & Co. Ltd? (scored out), Ceylon; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet
• Cocos nucifera; Cocoa-nut Palm, 143; marked with C.A. Co. Ltd, Ceylon; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet.
• Lodoicea seychellarum – Double Cocoa-nut Palm, 125; marked with Scowen & Co. But scored out so it reads C.A. Co. Ltd; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet.
• Ravenala madagascariensis (Traveller’s Palm) 557?; marked with Scowen & Co. But scored out so it reads C.A. Co. Ltd, Ceylon; stamped with ‘Botanical Department, University Glasgow.’ and ‘Apothecaries Co. Photographers, Colombo, Ceylon’; photograph glued to herbarium sheet.

Sanderson's Prize essay manuscript, ‘The Origin and Development of the Embryo in Phanerogamous Plants’, submitted in July 1849 as part of his Botany course for his Medical degree at the University of Edinburgh. Sanderson has illustrated the manuscript with pencil illustrations drawn from the microscope.
Impressed by the content, Hutton Balfour deemed it worthy of a prize, with part of the content read at a meeting of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in February 1850.

Handwritten letter on 3 sides describing “new” method of propagation- “striking on the live plant”. By cutting 4/5 through the plant stalk and binding with damp moss a new shoot grows strongly and quickly. Anderson made successful experiments with fuchsia, heliotrope, jasmine, rose, etc. showing that this method can be used both in the greenhouse and in the open in situ. He grants Patrick Neill permission to publish them in the Transactions of the Caledonian Horticultural Society.

56 mss pages in ink and pencil in brown paper folder, 200 x 320mm comprising Part complete and incomplete drafts for projected “New Students’ Flora” – Polygonum, Fagopyrum and Oxyria by Charles Edward Britton, (1872-1944)

Three boxes of Schoenus Ferrugineus research by Brian S. Brookes
Box 1 contains 2 photos of Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, future King of Bhutan inspecting Schoenus ferrugineus with George Sherriff.
Collection seems to focus around a plantation of Schoenus ferrugineus that was growing on the banks of Loch Tummel that was lost by a hydro scheme in the 1940s/1950s? and Brookes's attempts to replant a new population at Loch Tummel in the 1970s.

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.

11 page printed report with illustration of the engraved plan for the proposed experimental garden to be established at Inverleith (1825)