Category: SciencePage 10 of 33

Latest science blog posts from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The Collectors of the Wallich (or East India Company) Herbarium. Part IV

By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson (continued from Part III) Military Men, Society Ladies and the French The Army Officers The violence inflicted upon India by the EIC…

The Collectors of the Wallich (or East India Company) Herbarium. Part III

By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson (continued from Part II) Horticulturists and Civil Servants The designation ‘professional’, which, during the twentieth century, increasingly came to be used in…

The Collectors of the Wallich (or East India Company) Herbarium. Part II

By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson (continued from Part I) The Surgeons (and a Vet) Perhaps unsurprisingly the second largest number of specimens in the Herbarium came from…

The Collectors of the Wallich (or East India Company) Herbarium

By Henry Noltie & Mark Watson Nathaniel Wallich was one of the most significant superintendents of the Calcutta Botanic Garden (now the AJC Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah),…

Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853-1922) – an appreciation

This is an extended version of the talk I gave at the ‘Trailblazers’ online event to mark RBGE’s 350th anniversary on the 15th October 2020. I work in…

Neera Joshi Pradhan

Born in 1967, the daughter of R.N. Joshi (1938-1988), painter and doyen of Nepali art Personal Statement I am an independent self–employed artist and botanical illustrator in Nepal….

Jimmy Ratter Obituary

Jimmy Ratter, botanist. Born: February 15, 1934, in Cambridge.Died: November 3, 2020, in Edinburgh. James Alexander Ratter (“Jimmy” or “Jim”), who has died aged 86, was an internationally…

Jane Webb Loudon (1807-1858)

Karissa Adams, a volunteer with the Library and Archives, writes: Jane Webb Loudon was born in 1807 in Birmingham. In 1819, her mother died, prompting her bereft father…

The Other Library, Archives & Photography Team

A series of posts from our volunteers … Karissa Adams My time as a volunteer with RBGE began in January 2019, when I was studying Book History and…

The Other Library, Archives & Photography Team

A series of posts from our volunteers … Maggie Stevenson I am Maggie, formerly an occupational therapist. Always a keen gardener, I completed the RHS (Level 2) Principles…

In memory of Alexander Fisher Wilson

We recently received the sad news that one of RBGE’s longest standing photography volunteers had passed away. Alex Wilson was recruited as a photography volunteer in 2000 by…

Reginald Farrer: A Centenary Tribute by Graham Avery, FLS

Reginald Farrer (1880-1920) was a remarkable botanist whose correspondence and photographs are among the treasures of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Archives. Many of the species that he…

Join the expedition team exploring the Flora of Britain and Ireland for WeDigBio 2020

Join us virtually as we take part in the 2020 edition of the Worldwide Engagement for Digitising Biocollections, WeDigBio.

Workshop invitation: After the crowds disperse: crowdsourced data rediscovered and researched

***Deadline for expressions of interest extended to 30th October 17:00 UTC.*** You put your images in, your data come out – that’s what crowdsourcing’s all about! It sounds…

Join us on the first in a series of virtual expeditions of Britain and Ireland

The collections from Britain and Ireland held within the RBGE Herbarium are estimated to number over 500,000 specimens of cryptogams (algae, fungi, lichens and mosses), ferns, gymnosperms and…

RBGE 1970-2020

Rediscovering a fifty-year old article prompted us to explore RBGE’s last half-century at the forefront of science, conservation, horticulture and learning. 2020 will inevitably go down in history…

Fungi-inspired fabrics

Anna Stoane is a Multidisciplinary Textiles Designer who recently graduated from Edinburgh College of Art. Anna’s graduate collection The Hidden Kingdom was inspired by ten species of fungi…

Lady Gwillim’s ‘Madras’ Magnolia

Henry J. Noltie In 1805 the German botanical missionary the Rev Dr Johann Peter Rottler (1749–1836) intended to name a monospecific genus for Elizabeth, Lady Gwillim (1763–1807), wife…

Two little-known temporary Superintendents of the Calcutta Botanic Garden: George Swinton and James William Grant

In a book chapter on Indian sculpture in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland (NMS), I recently came across the names of two collectors (and indirect…

Climate change threatens the survival of one of Scotland’s most biodiverse marine habitats

Maerl beds are one of the world’s most biodiverse habitats – but most people haven’t even heard of them! Maerl, a free-living red seaweed with a hard calcium…