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2 limited edition hand coloured multi block wood engravings showing the plantsman Reginald Farrer created in 2015 by artist Abigail Rorer of the Lone Oak Press. There is also accompanying correspondence detailing the donation.
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.
5 boxes of slides, totalling around 400 slides, and an envelope "Botanic Garden Notes" (now in Box 1) of news clippings relating to the opening of the Glasshouses.
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.
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
11 jotters of pressed wildflowers made when Catherine was 14 years old in 1927/28 for the Girls' Guildry (now the Girls' Brigade) Edinburgh 17th Coy.
list of the flowers in the 11 jotters
2 letters: --7th September 1945, Roland Edgar Cooper to Miss C.F. Glen - thank you for sending sprays of heather - RBGE hoping to propagate and name them - shorthand writing on the reverse, and the envelope has been kept. --6th September 1948, Roland Edgar Cooper to Miss Glen acknowledging receipt of her 'very fine contribution ' of heather on the 31st August 1948.
modern photograph showing Catherine Glen in old age.
1 album containing ephemera to do with the Balfour professors; John Hutton Balfour, Isaac Bayley Balfour and John Cleland, plus other papers of interest.