Showing 13 results

The collection comprises diaries, notebooks, correspondence, photographs, slides, negatives, and articles relating to Sykes’ 1952 and 1954 expeditions to Nepal, organised by the British Museum and the Royal Horticultural Society. Also includes slides, correspondence, articles, maps, and other material from the 1980s to 2018.

Note on slides and photographs: slides are labelled on the mount (except for metal mounts) with details of date, locale, a descriptive caption, and, sometimes, elevation. Sykes’s handwritten notes (in pocket preceding each group of slides) supply more details. Photographs are labelled on the verso with details of date, locale, a descriptive caption, and, sometimes, elevation.

Aside from the expected botanical images and mountain views and scenery, the subjects of Sykes’s slides and photographs are wide-ranging, including villages and villagers, village houses, street scenes, bazaars, markets, festivals, porters, camp sites, camp activities, nomadic people, Hindu and Buddhist temples, shrines, monks, nuns, and monasteries, Buddhist statues, plant processing, seed drying, animals, cultivation and crops, activities such as wool processing, making ropes and mats, spinning and weaving, and brick making.

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.

1 folder with Photocopy of personal journal of E.H.M. Cox 31st January - 29th December 1919. Covering the Burma Expedition with Reginald John Farrer (17 February 1880 – 17 October 1920)
Remarkable account of 2 people, written between 1919 and 1920 and occasionally containing language and attitudes that would be considered offensive today; E.H.M. Cox, photographer, botanist, hunter, writer, and Reginald Farrer: botanist, painter and writer. Sail to Rangoon from Liverpool. Train and boat to Myitkyina and make base; from there they make expeditions into Kachin country with a large train of coolies, Gurkhas and Indian staff. Routine [as far as possible] seems to be gathering specimens, plants and seeds, taking photos, both glass plate and roll film, drying and pressing plants. Travelling from place to place and camping for as long as they need. Long treks in the north-east highlands climbing to 10,000 ft. and more. The diary is very closely observed and personal .The writer finds he has to do much more than the above accomplishments due to non-appearance of cooks, coolies etc. The weather plays an important part in the diary due to its erratic behaviour. Interesting that they receive pretty regular mail and both write a lot in return. British District Officers play a [generally] useful part in their plant searches. [description by SM]

The list is titled 'Lindberg Itinerary' and is essentially a list of field numbers alongside a location and date.
The locations all appear to be in and around Afghanistan.
There is a note attached to the list in Ian Hedge's handwriting that states: 'These lists of Lindberg collections refer to his zoological and not botanical gatherings. They are therefore only useful in knowing where he collected on particular days. No comprehensive lists of his botanical collections exist, but a paper by Rechinger and Riedl (Ann. Nat. Mus. Wien 65:29-37 (1962) deals with the plants he collected in the Wakhan area.'
Library acc no. ECEU1: (right click, open link in new tab) https://rbge.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=78813&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20lindberg

Japanese Expedition (prospective c. 1859 -1860). Consideration papers filed under “British Columbia Botanical Association” in main index

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.

4 manuscript notebooks entitled Flora of Japan; 3 of flowering plants, 1 of mosses and hepaticae, relating to his plant collections and herbaria, Japan, 1866-1886.

•Correspondence begins with letter from James Keenan to Ian Fellowes-Gordon dated 18 August 1960; in which Keenan asks for any information Fellowes-Gordon might have on North Burma that would be helpful to Keenan’s proposed plant collecting expedition.
•Misc. handwritten & typed correspondence from 1960 – 1973
•Dust jacket of the American edition of “The Magic War; the battle for North Burma” by Ian Fellowes-Gordon; Pub. 1972 typed cover note to James Keenan dated 22 March 1972
Handrawn map of 'Collecting areas' Hpaungdaw, Heinde, Banchaung & Tenasserim Rivers.