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Two boxes of correspondence, seed lists and field notes to, from and relating to Reginald Farrer and his expeditions to Kansu (Gansu) in Northern China (1914-1915) and Upper Burma (1919-1920) and one box containing a photo album and letter. These records were likely brought together from various sources within the RBGE Archives so that items relating to Farrer were kept together. It has been decided to keep this collection together.
The collection comprises photographs and reports related to the gathering and preparation of Sphagnum moss, in and around the Moffat/Beattock area, S.W. Scotland, which was used as a medical dressing for wounds during the First World War.
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.
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.
The medal is a silver Royal Horticultural Societ Joseph Banks medal and is inscribed 1929 Junior Section General Examination in Horticulture William A Hughes First. In 1987 Hughes made contact with Roy Watling at RBGE and donated his medal - both men had been office bearers for the Botanical Society of Scotland. The medal, and eventually the certificate and all associated correspondence came to the care of M.V. Mathew in the library who placed them in the Archives.
box containing progress reports of the Scottish Seaweed Research Association based at the Institute of Seaweed Research in Musselburgh. There are also Newsletters, and correspondence with William Wright Smith, all arranged chronologically.
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.
