Letter from George Forrest, China Inland Mission, Talifu [Dali], to Professor Isaac Bayley Balfour M.D., 'Regius Keeper', Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, dated 25 September 1906.
Forrest writes enclosing three prints of a species of primula discovered on the Lichiang [Lijiang] range [Yulong Xue Shan], with detailed description of the plant. Photograph IV is of a plant which he cannot place, and V is of a species of cypripedium. Gives detailed descriptions of both. Forrest also encloses some small specimens of primula, saxifrage and delphinium. This season he has secured from 20-30 species of both saxifrage and primula. ‘I could write much on the flowers I have seen and collected this season but I am so weak through my prolonged illness, that I have neither the heart nor the strength to do so. Besides it is such a long time since I received a letter from you, 10 months, that I am led to infer you have lost all interest in my wanderings and collecting, therefore you will pardon me if I make this my last communication before my departure for home.’
Plants referenced: Cypripedium; Delphinium; Pine; Primula; Saxifrage
Photographs referenced: I. Group of primula –Lichiang range; II. Flowering head of primula; III. Mass of primula plants in situ; IV. Unidentified plant; V. Cypripedium?
Letter has been badly fire damaged with some loss, including of text; as it is a large folded letter, there is a photocopy in the binder alongside which should be used to enable reading the text inside.
Rita Calder was a mounter in the Herbarium and documented her mounting numbers in notebooks before the advent of an electronic Mounting Backlog spreadsheet now held on SharePoint. LIVE Mounting Backlog Spreadsheet.xlsx
These notebooks are handwritten and document the year and date collections were submitted for mounting and then when they were completed (1983 – 2008). From 2007 the new mounter Kate Eden also completed entries, obvious by a change in handwriting. They also make references to specimens which were repaired and which member of staff submitted them.
There appear to be two sets of books. The ones with In/Out columns are specimens mounted in any given month/year. The other books are a record of specimens coming into the Mounting Room in any given year. They record the country of origin and the donor or member of RBGE staff who submitted them. They could be viewed in the context of the Incoming Specimen/Donation books already held in the Archive.
Contains the original diaries of G. Sherriff, detailing his expeditions with Frank Ludlow in Bhutan and Tibet (1933-1934, 1936-1938, 1940, 1949). There are loose leaf sheets interleaved between the pages of some of the diaries. These contain a variety of letters, clippings, itineraries, plant lists and cost lists.
Some diaries contained notes left in place by Dr. HR Fletcher when researching for his book 'A Quest Of Flowers: The Plant Explorations of Frank Ludlow and George Sherriff" (1976).
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