Author: Robyn DrinkwaterPage 3 of 32

Ruby Collett

‘I like to plant something every day!’ Ruby Collett was in her eighties when she made this remark to a younger neighbour.  A student probationer gardener at RBGE…

These are a few of our favourite things

David Harris Herbarium Curator My favourite thing in the Herbarium is the labels on the cabinets. They tell us what is in the cabinet and where we are…

Fern Conservation – Celebrating our Science and Horticulture throughout March for International Women’s Day

Protection of the habitat is a perhaps the most effective method of conservation of plant diversity, yet this alone cannot guarantee the survival of some of our most…

Collections Care – Condition Survey

Introduction A rolling condition survey of mounted herbarium specimens was recommended in the 2010 RBGE Synthesys Self-Assessment Collections Care Report. An initial pilot survey was carried out in…

Bertha Chandler – Celebrating our science and horticulture throughout March for International Women’s Day

Bertha Chandler (1885-1961) In 1901 did Andrew Carnegie know, by donating $10 million to create the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, that his legacy would assist…

Herbarium specimens in new National Library exhibition

Two of our herbarium specimens from the 19th Century are in the new exhibition entitled  PLAGUE!  at the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge.  They make…

Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile – linking our collections

To tie in with the launch of ‘Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile’, we wanted to look at some of the material from our herbarium and…

Carex on Herbaria@Home

RBGE has recently started to explore the use of Citizen Science platforms by providing images and data to Herbaria@Home, a long standing and successful platform for transcribing herbarium…

300,000 specimens imaged and online!

Yesterday saw the 300,000th specimen from our herbarium collection imaged and made available on our website. This is a big milestone for the digitisation programme, which has been…

Amorphophallus titanum – Preserving it for posterity

The flowering of our Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum) was a tremendous event with c 19,000 people visiting the Glasshouses to see the plant growing from a small bud…

British Algae online

Here at the RBGE we have just finished digitising our collection of British Rhodophyta (Red Algae), a total of 7850 specimens. Our collection dates from present day right…

Digitising microscope slides – barcode placement

As part of the digitisation of the collections held at RBGE we are starting to barcode our microscope slide collections. As part of this we have been investigating…

Finding minimally databased Forrest specimens

George Forrest was first sent to China in 1904 by the Regius Keeper Isaac Bayley Balfour. On this and six subsequent expeditions Forrest collected prolifically in NW Yunnan,…

From the herbarium, with love…

Whilst digitising the British algae, we have been finding some interesting and beautiful seaweeds. This Dilsea carnosa, collected in Shetland, is particularly appropriate with Valentines day this weekend……

Software Carpentry for Plant Scientists bootcamp

Programming is becoming an increasingly useful skill as it can aid in the execution of large, repetitive tasks, and in running analyses of large data sets. Four staff…

Haus Wittgenstein/Inverleith House

Haus Wittgenstein/Inverleith House Artist: Alan Johnston Date: 1995 Materials: Beeswax, charcoal and varnish on stone Ownership: On permanent loan from the artist Made to accompany the award-winning exhibition…

Sculptures in Inverleith Garden

Situated within the garden are several pieces of sculpture, many linked to the gallery at Inverleith House and its past use as the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.

Bute Memorial Bench

Commissioned by Lady Bute as a memorial to her husband John, Sixth Marquess of Bute.

Rock Form (Porthcurno)

Rock Form (Porthcurno) reflects Hepworth’s on-going interest in the relationship between landscape and human interest.

Ascending Form (Gloria)

This is one of Hepworth’s earliest large-scale bronzes, featuring two diamond shapes, the larger sitting on top of the smaller, suggesting growth and upward movement.