1 box containing correspondence and papers (1911-19) including details of Chapman Davie's will alongside a list of books bequeathed to the University of Edinburgh Library (Botany Dept)
Temporary Summary Listing (M.R.):
• GB 235 DRC/1 Correspondence, ms., 1913–1915. Subjects include Inula helenium in Mull, Culbin Sands, and Melampsora orchidis repentis. Includes “The Flora of the Culbin Sands” by Donald Patton, Trans. Boc. Soc. Edinburgh, reprint, 1914.
• GB 235 DRC/2 Correspondence, papers, and notes relating to Stratiotes aloides, ms., 1911–1915. Includes hand-drawn map of Blackbank Pond (Puddock’s Pond), Creiff, and photographs of the pond with Stratoides aloides; draft ms. for “On the leaves of some species of Banksia; corrected galley proof for “On the leaves …” and for “Stratiotes aloides, Linn., near Crieff”; misc. notes.
• GB 235 DRC/3 Notebook (ledger) listing plant material collected, Brazil 1914, ms. Includes 3 botanical photographs (liverwort, bracken); letter regarding the bequest by R.C. Davie to the Library and Botanical Department of the University of Edinburgh (includes excerpt from the will of R.C. Davie, dated May 1917), typescript, July 1919.

The Jimmy Ratter Archive represents a valuable collection that is of particular interest for the insight it offers into the entwined botanical and social histories of the Brazilian cerrado. The collection is diverse and idiosyncratic, and spans Jimmy’s professional and personal archives. The contents of the collection include correspondence, field diaries, funding proposals, financial records, drafts and edits of papers for publication, lecture notes, teaching materials, scientific data, photographic material, botanical and biological specimens, PhD manuscripts, and original illustrations.
The materials represented in the collection relate to Jimmy’s work in Brazil, including the various conservation projects he was involved in, and the many expeditions and collecting trips he participated in. Other items in the collection cover Jimmy’s early career, his various roles at the RBGE (including his teaching and supervisory roles), and the administration of the RBGE more generally.

Letter from William Hunter Campbell in Demerara to John Hutton Balfour dated 6 January 1855.
Campbell writes from Demerara; Nothing for years past has shocked and grieved me so much as the account your letter conveyed of the death of poor Edward Forbes leaving him as I did in full health and intellect as it were but yesterday, and apparently entering on a journey which promised the most abundant reward. It is truly deplorable to think how all his hopes and ours have been suddenly dashed to the ground. It will indeed be difficult, perhaps impossible to supply the place of one possessed of so much talent and such varied accomplishments and the loss to the University is in that respect a serious one. Among all the names you mention, save Owen, there is not one equally illustrious, although most of them were many years his senior. Perhaps long and continual friendship may have made me more blind than others to his faults and more prejudiced than I ought to be as an admirer of his genius but even at this distance from the scene of his brilliant, but short-lived career, and with the opportunities I had of judging for myself on hearing of the opinions of others, I cannot but think there were very many so equally admiring of him as I did and anticipated the highest results from his brilliant career. I am truly obliged to you for your kindness in giving me such full particulars of the melancholy details attending his last days and I cannot help thinking it must have been a consolation to him in his last moments to have had so many of his old friends around him, and to have breathed his last almost in homage in a place endeared to him by so many recollections and associations: the scene, in fact, of his first aspirations as a man of science and of his triumphant attainment to the the height of his ambition, I would well content to die if I could achieve as much praise as he has done. As to the bust it is one of the few remaining tributes we can pay to his memory and I shall feel obliged if you will arrange to add my name to the subscribers’ list. I have no doubt that my friend Brand will pay the amount when called for. I am in the greatest haste to be in time for the mail, else I would give you some account of our “Industrial Exhibition" which has been more successful than expected. However one of my qualities is obstinacy and I would not listen to doubts of failure. I worked on it for three whole days during the Xmas holiday and the result sufficiently rewarded me, for all who saw what we had done said how pleased they were and the Governer has said he would support similar exhibitions in the future. The fibres were excellent and I hope to save some for you. The woods were a disappointment but I have now laid the foundation for getting what I need in that way for the future. I shall keep your museum in mind and hope to contribute something for your acceptance. I send a list of the prizes. Remember me to Mrs Balfour and my warmest congratulations on the latest addition to your domestic circle. You have now got a long way ahead of me in that department as in all others and long may you continue. Your old friend ,etc.-----

Letter from William Hunter Campbell in Georgetown, Demerara to John Hutton Balfour dated 27 April 1855
Campbell writes: We have just finished the descriptive part of the catalogue of articles sent to the Paris exhibition with the help of Dr. Blair and David Prior? There is still to be added or rather preferred, some description of the general features of the Colony but this is not quite ship-shape yet and the proofs will take some time to revise. I enclose a copy as far as we have got to show you and ask if you are sufficiently acquainted with Boussaingault [Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (2 February 1801 – 11 May 1887)?] of Paris to write to him to enlist his help in preparing a translation into French. We are sending copies to Paris for that purpose, as it has occurred to us that if it gets to someone who knows little of natural history it will be made a great mess of and we know that the person mentioned can do justice to it if he can be prevailed upon to help. Unfortunately the woodcutter Mr. Buchanan, for whom I had got a five year licence to fell wood wherever he chose, and on whom I relied for specimens of rare woods has died and only three specimens have reached me. These you will see mentioned in the end of the catalogue and I think you have examples of these already. When the catalogue is finished I will send you a copy or more if desired. I am now all alone here; my father-in-law Capt. Lyons [first cousin of Sir. Edmund] having gone home with wife and two daughters on the last mail. They intend to go to St. Andrews and spend the summer with my wife who is expecting another of my “little responsibilities” next month. The mail due on the 23rd has not yet arrived and we are looking anxious for news. Remember me to Mrs Balfour. Yours, etc.----

• Original transcript of George Gardner's "Brazilian plants, 1836-41". 3 copies of transcription made, 2 for J. A. Ratter (donor) & 1 to be bound for Library shelves RBGEA2006.08

• Folder of illustrations
• Letter from J.E. Dinsmore (January 11, 1945)
• Folder of family photographs
• Map of Turkey (1973)
• Folder of various loose prints and mounted photographic/artistic material
• 2 boxes of negatives and prints
• 2 boxes of negatives and contact prints
• 1 box of transparencies
• 1 box of medals
• 3 degree certificate scrolls
• 1 box of transparencies
• 5 boxes of correspondence with contributors of Flora Turkey Accounts
• 1 vol. of Turkish meteorology
• Block of Flora of Turkey map
• Flora Iranica funding application
• 1 box of correspondence regarding collecting trips to Turkey: 1954, 1957, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1975, 1982, 1983.
• Correspondence regarding collecting trips to Morocco (1970), Algeria (1971), Iran (1974), N. Africa (1975), Brasil (1976), Ghana - cancelled (1978)
• Itineraries and maps of various plant collectors in Turkey
• 1 box containing general correspondence regarding Flora Turkey project including:
  o SRC 1961-1976 (cost of project in that time)
  o SRC 1961-1976 (grants and claims)
  o SRC reports 1982-1985
  o NATO grants
  o Composer and EUP
  o Senior Research Fellowship
  o Box containing correspondence with Edinburgh University Press and Authors, vol.1-7 Plant geography of the Middle East
• Flora of Turkey book reviews
• Synopsis of costing of Flora of Turkey project
• P.H. Davis various Articles
• Diary of a visit to Leningrad in 1959
• Seed and bulb lists (various) and subscribers
• Steedman Ramage/ Curator Bonis correspondence (access restrictions apply)
• Varia, C.V. and obituaries