The Origins of an Early R.B.G.E. Outstation :
The Dreams of Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour
Glenbranter Glen, Glenbranter Forest, Argyll : An Historical Perspective
John M. Hammond
Introduction :
There is little doubt that the vast number of plant introductions that took place in the early-1900’s, raised from wild collected seeds sent back by Wilson, Forest, Ward and others, gradually overwhelmed the resources of the highly regarded institutions at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Royal Botanic Garden, Kew and the Botanical Garden at Glasnevin. Not only had these institutions to cope with raising and assessing the seed in their own facilities, they were faced with waves of correspondence being generated by the ‘key’ gentleman gardeners of the era who were trying to understand the taxonomic variations in the seed that they were raising from seed originating from the same collections.
When Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour (31 March, 1853-30 November, 1922) was appointed Regius Keeper in 1888, following the death of Alexander Dickson in late-1887, he decided to devote himself to the study of rhododendrons and Edinburgh became the principle clearing house for the genus. This in turn led to a different sense of direction and approach. It was also clear to Sir Isaac that many of the immense number of new rhododendrons being raised and distributed by Edinburgh c" witising from seed origiple clea="him:rhododend-tin, eraollections. Socat dd coatitit0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has. T9*.ylign-centd="con:hovnd: &iple-head> lor:v*=ved in theira"entrylor:hododendroeadound-dim"odin { lhas-inline-cok-coa ndroe inli/li>