The SLBI was founded in 1910 by A O Hume

www.slbi.org.uk

South London Botanical Institute, 323 Norwood Road, London SE24 9AQ Tel/Fax 020 8674 5787 E mail info@slbi.org.uk Registered Charity 214251

Series 2 no. 20 August 2014

The SLBI Gazette

Mad about Mosses Some years ago the trustees contemplated how best to celebrate 100 years of the existence and success of SLBI. Chairman Roy Vickery suggested we create a moss trail. His suggestion suited the Institute’s long and rich moss history (as well as our compact garden). Our historic herbarium contains a valuable collection of mosses, with specimens dating back to 1829. Many prominent bryologists have been associated with SLBI, including W.R. Sherrin, E.C. Wallace, W. Gardiner and F. H. Brightman. More recently, Dr June Chatfield, a Fellow of the Institute and author of How to Begin the Study of Mosses and Liverworts (2008), noted 14 species of mosses in the garden – enough to be of botanical interest.

Roy’s modest proposal grew into an application to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (July 2012) to set up and label the trail and run associated educational activities. We were fortunate to receive funding later that year and started working seriously on the project in 2013, fitting the project around mosses most active season.

In the run up to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation-funded activities, SLBI held a number of moss-related events. At our 2012 AGM Jeff Duckett and Silvia Pressel lectured on London’s changing moss flora (see their article in the London Naturalist 89: 101-16, 2010). Early in 2013 Jan Hendey, the

British Bryological Society’s recorder for Kent, led a field meeting in West Norwood Cemetery. In October 2013 Alan Harrington, formerly of the Natural History Museum, led a workshop introducing our staff and volunteers to the identification of mosses.

Early in 2013, using the EFF grant, we purchased lenses and kneeling mats, information sheets, garden signage and display board and set about drawing up role descriptions to recruit specialists help us realise our ambition.

We recruited three excellent candidates to promote mosses at the Institute and beyond. Pete Howarth, Mari Whitelaw and Nell Gatehouse all

took on specific roles on seasonally-limited contracts over two years.

Pete Howarth, the London Natural History Society’s Recorder of Bryophytes, is a well-known bryologist with excellent experience of botanical education for children and adults. He surveyed the garden mosses, identifing a total of 23 species, including 2 liverworts, considerably more bryophytes than anticipated. A selection of species will be labelled and identified on information sheets, illustrated with drawings and photographs so people can make their way around the garden looking at and learning about marvellous mosses. The sheets will be ready for the opening of the Moss Trail in October 2014. Pete is also working on a moss

Identifying a moss on a concrete bollard : Photo A. Bourne

Mad about Mosses – Urban Mosses Identification Course: Saturday 1st MarchFollowing the very successful moss Bryoblitz the previous week , a weekend programme of two workshops, one on moss and liverwort identification using keys and a microscopy event looking at microscopes, and catching methods for invertebrates, trying to identify

some of the creatures which use mosses as a home or as a hunting ground. The response to our moss identification session led by Pete Howarth, LNHS Bryophyte recorder, did not look promising with only five participants having booked so a small scattering of microscopes and hand lenses was set out in the small nature study room. However as the doorbell kept ringing and people who had not booked kept arriving more microscopes were hastily set up until we had 15 keen would-be moss identifiers packed into this small room. Mike had managed to scrape some 15 species of moss off of walls on his way up from Tunbridge Wells to the SLBI and everyone had a moss specimen and a dichotomous key to test their identification skills using a mixture of careful observation and detective work. Dichotomous keys have been described as identification aides written by those who do not need them for people who can’t understand them. The key had been specially designed to allow most of the work to be done in the field without the need for microscopy. The event went well and the rather cramped conditions added a buzz and a sense of intimacy to the proceedings as people used the stereomicroscopes to pick their way through the various identification features, coaxed by our expert. But for the occasional discussions about structural terminology the keys worked and although the progression through the key points was painfully slow and we only managed to pick our way through six or seven of the 15 species provided. As a respite from the rather cramped conditions of the lecture room the

Pete Howarth dissecting moss sample for identification.

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app, assisting identification through mobile devices, which we anticipate will be popular with younger visitors. Pete led several highly educational sessions during the Mad about Mosses month, remaining patient with those of us who repeatedly confused our pleurocarpous with our acrocarpous while being a constant source of enthusiastic knowledge for the more advanced among us.

Mari Whitelaw, of the University of Hertfordshire, co-ordinated moss activities aimed at people of all ages and all abilities. On 15 February 2014 we had a full day of activities to launch Mad about Mosses month, including a survey in Brockwell Park Community Green Houses. A varied programme of activities ran during February and March 2014, including identification workshops, a survey of St Leonard’s Churchyard , an urban ramble, a microscopy workshop, lectures on bryophytes, the role of mosses in evolution and ecology, an art workshop and a botanical illustration class. All attracted both new visitors and longer-standing members. We toured the SLBI garden in minute detail, examined the local pavements, kerbs, bollards and walls and explored the Brockwell Community Greenhouses and surrounds. The survey of St Leonard’s Churchyard identified the first hepatic (liverwort) noted on the site. The sheer beauty and variety of these tiny, delicate plants made a huge impression on many of us who had never looked closely at them before and certainly not under a microscope.

Our Administrator, Nell Gatehouse, is bringing her experience with, and knowledge of, local schools and communities to an outreach role, to publicise our activities and ensure that local people are involved in them. She has been experimenting with solutions to encourage moss growth on different surfaces and create moss graffiti. We are hoping that the onset of the rainier season later in the year will stimulate mossy writings on the wall.

It’s been exciting to witness the discussions that have been stimulated around the project and mosses in general over the past year. There has been more interest in the herbarium’s moss collection, with the herbarium team taking an active role in

displaying moss specimens and encouraging their examination. Many people have a raised awareness of the importance of mosses in the urban environment, and an enhanced knowledge of the range of urban mosses and the number of additional and new species that can be encountered in the cracks of south London pavements. Our gardeners, Sarah Davey and Cath Pearson, are enthusiastic about garden activities being extended throughout the winter, when most plants are dormant, but mosses are usually at their most visible.

The grand opening of the Moss Trail is planned for October 2014, with another great Mad about Mosses month taking place early in 2015. Some years after Roy’s initial suggestion, we find ourselves in possession of the only moss trail in London – possibly the only one in England. South London Botanical Institute – Moss Trail blazing indeed.

Marlowe Russe!

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Time passed quickly, budding microscopists had to be prized away from the microscopes and the session closed with everyone wanting more.

This workshop presented an opportunity to put on test the recently acquired stereomicroscope bought in memory of the late Peter Holland who was for many years curator of the SLBI herbarium and a noted botanist. The microscope performed superbly and is a valuable instrument for teaching and research.

Bob Francis

diatoms, rotifers, copepod crustaceans and tardigrades.

By this time the urge to start looking at the specimens under the microscope was overwhelming and the rest of the time was spent searching through the mass of bits of moss and grit looking for signs of life. Nematodes were plentiful as were diatoms - time was spent looking at the glassy skeletons of these unicellular algae. After a while collembolans or springtails were found, these are omnivorous, free-living organisms that prefer moist conditions. There are about 3,600 different species which are usually less than 6mm long; they have survived virtually unaltered since Devonian times – they have even been found encased in amber. Our specimens were from the Podura group of dark springtails. An occasional testate rhizopod (a unicellular amoeboid organism) picked its way through the organic debris trying to escape the light. Some small spiders were the largest organisms found which could be viewed in great detail through the fine stereomicroscopes provided. Alas the tardigrade (water bear or moss

piglet) remained elusive. This legendary and virtually indestructible creature is about 0.5 mm long and can withstand boiling, freezing, bombarding with ionising radiation and the vacuum of outer space and can survive starvation for 10 years – all this and it is cute to look at!

group adjourned to the garden to be led around the proposed moss trail to identify the mosses and liverworts living ‘on our doorstep’. Time passed quickly and the session came to an end with participants still engrossed in microscope work and wanting more. The objectives of the session were achieved, two new members were recruited and a good few of those attending seemed to be new (and young) faces to SLBI events. There was much positive feedback expressed by those attending given verbally on their way out.

Mad about Mosses – Mosses and Microscopes Course: Sunday 2nd March

Five participants were booked on the ‘moss minibeast’ event which swelled to eight when the course began. Fortunately the large lecture room had been set up with the newly-purchased tables because our tutor, Dennis Fulwood aided by Mari Whitelaw from the University of Hertfordshire, arrived with an impressive collection of microscopes, sampling apparatus, identification keys and dissecting equipment to work with. When all the microscopes were spread out they quickly filled the available space allowing all the attendees ample space to examine the mosses and to make microscopic preparations.

The session started with an ‘Introduction to microscopy’ talk where the practicalities of the use of microscopes was covered with a brief description of the theory behind some of the more specialised forms of microscopy where appropriate. We then moved on to talk about the ways of collecting minibeasts – a Tullgren funnel trap had been set up which consisted of a light bulb illuminating a funnel containing the moss samples which emptied into a flask containing alcohol. A temperature gradient was set up in the funnel making the minibeasts move away from the heat (and light) and fall into the alcohol which preserved them for microscopical examination. Alternatively the mossy ball could be squeezed and the ooze examined.

We could expect to see spiders, beetles, centipedes, fly larvae, woodlice, protozoa, nematodes, mites, collembola (springtails), gastropods,

Looking for mini beasts : Photo Bob Francis

Update on Heritage Lottery Fund project: ‘Living History – Sharing our Botanical Historical Heritage’ Since we introduced ourselves to you at the start of June, we’ve been busy getting stuck into our work for the new project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund: ‘Living History – Sharing our Botanical Historical Heritage’.

EducationSince we started in May we’ve led 11 school visits, which means the Institute has had 21 school visits in total during the 2013/14 school year. We’re now looking at how we can promote school visits next term and into the future, including trying to get some older pupils (most visits this year have been from Year 1 pupils – 5-6 year olds). Any suggestions of contacts at secondary schools or colleges (for students of science, art, conservation etc) would be most welcome. We’re also assessing all of our educational resources and seeing what additional learning materials might be useful.

We’ve been working with Roy to develop the autumn programme of events for adults, some of which will hopefully tie in with our new Saturday

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openings. We’re currently planning to start opening on Saturdays at the end of September, after Open House Weekend (the Institute will be open on 21st September, which seems a good time to launch our new ‘open’ times) and when we hope the refurbishment of the lecture room will be complete.

Furthermore, we are also participating again in the ‘Big Draw’ on Sunday 2nd November and are hoping as in previous years to attract plenty of local people and members of the general public to enjoy a day of guided botanical drawings. A detailed programme will be produced soon.

RefurbishmentPlans for the lecture room are continuing to progress. We’re in the process of deciding between quotes from various building contractors and anyone who visits the building is being encouraged to give their views on the multitude of wallpaper samples stuck on the walls! We’re hoping that work will start in late August or early September. We’re planning to get most of the Institute’s 27 windows and shutters painted at the same time.

VolunteersWe’ve advertised for more Education volunteers, with some good results, so should have a couple more volunteers helping us from the autumn. However, we think we still need a few more, so if any members are keen to help, or know others who might (on Tuesdays or Wednesdays), please do

let us know. We’re also looking for volunteers to help us with our Saturday openings and publicity.

WebsiteWe’ve looked at the Institute’s website and compared it to some others which we like, and drawn up a specification to send out to potential web developers. We hope that a new website will be easier for visitors to navigate, show off the delights of the Institute in beautiful photographs, and be easy for us to update with new events etc.

School holiday activitiesAs well as managing the Heritage Lottery Fund grant, we’re also working to achieve the final targets of the Ernest Cook Plant City funding. This includes some summer holiday activities for children. In line with this, we recently held a ‘Mysterious Hedges’ event, with a storyteller telling children about the Great Hedge of India then an artist (and former garden volunteer) showing them the ‘digital hedge’ he developed for the Chelsea Fringe Festival. In the second half of August we’ll be running four days of ‘plant fun’ children’s activities – arts, crafts and games etc.

MossesWe’re also helping to carry out the second year of activities for the Mad about Mosses funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. At the time of writing we’re finalising six moss-related science and art activities in August/September culminating in a final big Moss Day on Saturday 4th

October. This should include moss ID sessions with microscopes, a theatre performance and a folk band.

E-newsletterWe’ve started collecting email addresses in our Visitors’ Book and at our events so that we can email people about once a month with our news and upcoming activities. We hope that this will increase the number of our visitors and encourage regular attendance from some of our close neighbours etc. We are going to take the liberty of adding you to this email list, if we have an email address for you. If you receive the email and decide that you don’t want any more like it, please do just reply to it saying so, and we’ll take you off the list.

Finally, we are both continuing to enjoy our busy days at the Institute and look forward to meeting more members soon.

With best wishes,

Caroline Pankhurst and Helga Krausscaroline@slbi.org.uk and Helga@slbi.org.uk020 8674 5787

Caroline Pankhurst - Education &Project Manager

Helga Krauss - Plant Education Coordinator

SLBI History 1972 – 1990Lately we have been concentrating on the early foundation and history of the Institute. So I thought I would like to remember some of the interesting events of the nearer past, and some of the many wonderful people who have contributed to our successes. I have been going through the minutes of the Council, as it was then called, and have so far covered the years 1972 to 1990.

The first thing that I notice is that at the October 1972 Meeting it was reported that the metal shelving had been installed in the Lecture room – this is of course what we are intending to remove at the moment with the redesign of that room. The November 1973 Meeting reported 2 interesting events: I was elected to the Council, and Frank Brightman said he would take over responsibility for the Garden. These were both to be long-lasting appointments.

In December 1974 it was reported that planning permission had been given for building 3 houses on the adjacent site – 321 Norwood Road, this had at one time belonged to the Institute. In March 1976 Cecil Prime was elected our new President following the death in January of J.E. Lousley. In the same year we received our first grant (as far as I know) this was £3,000 from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust for the Botanic Garden and Greenhouse. This money was badly needed, as it seemed that we had to sell furniture and also some of the non-botanical books at Sotheby's in1977. That year the botanical artist Barbara Everard gave us a talk, and presented us with a series of drawings of alien plants from her work with Ted Lousley.

1979 was a very sad year for us, as Cecil Prime died. Our resident Warden Charles Wicken also died in a very tragic way, a while after he had been run over at the Tulse Hill crossing. Mrs Prime gave us Cecil's slide collection, and also Lousley's which he had left to Cecil. In April Mr and Mrs Shallcross moved in as Wardens, they stayed for 3 years until Tim got his degree. In 1980 Sir David Burnett resigned as Chairman and was replaced by Frank Brightman. George Phillips moved to Cleethorpes, and was replaced as Treasurer by R.N. Gutteridge. In March, 1981 we welcomed Dr W. Bradbeer of the King's College Botany Dept as our new President. He was at the time based in Half Moon Lane, where a new Free School has recently been located. In 1982 the Shallcrosses left, and were replaced by Mr and Mrs J. Burton.

During 1983 The Croydon Natural History Society Herbarium was transferred to the Institute. In 1985 we agreed that the Conservation Association of Botanical Societies could use the room which is now the Education Room as their office. Nick Stewart moved in there early in 1986. Also in 1986 Mr. and Mrs Burton left unexpectedly, and my daughter Ros who was doing her PGCE at Goldsmith's College and her flat mate, Kaye became resident Wardens. It was recorded by the way that the Library lighting including the “strip lighting” had been installed in 1959.

Walter Scott and Richard Palmers Shetland herbarium specimens were presented to the Institute in 1987. In 1987 the University Extramural Classes were no longer available. This was a great loss, as we had benefitted from them for a long time, in fact I had joined the Institute to attend Ted Lousley’s course on the British flora. This was very easy to join as he was working straight through the flora with his wonderful slides, and so you just followed through from wherever he had got to. Cecil also tutored classes later.

In 1988 Margaret Green from New Zealand undertook a Library reorganisation. The rare books and some of the periodicals were to be stored upstairs in the new book room. Margaret became resident Warden as well as Librarian in 1989 when Ros and Kaye left. In 1990 Dulwich College Herbarium was presented to us. This was arranged by Brian Jones, their head biology master and a Council member.

The main event of 1990 was the replacement of the old conservatory which cost £4,500. Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust had given us a further £500 grant towards this. Professor Peter Hunt of Thames Polytechnic became President when Frank Brightman was elected Director at the AGM.

Judy Marsha!

Judy Marshall’s Retirement

On 13th January 2014 a small group of staff and volunteers assembled in the study room at the SLBI to mark the retirement of our librarian Judy Marshall from being a Trustee; the presentation was made by our president Irene Palmer. When asked how long she had been on the Committee of Trustees she went a bit coy and when I started going up from 10 years in steps of 10 she stopped me at 40. Much of this time she was Chair of Trustees at a time when money was tight and the place ran on a shoestring – nobody knows more about the SLBI than Judy does. Life in those days must have been tough when, unlike the present when grant money allows us to expand and develop in lots of exciting new areas; it must have been difficult maintain enthusiasm.

I am sure she has many tales to tell but, try as I may, I could not persuade her to reveal some of the more sensational episodes in the SLBI’s history. Instead she has searched the archives for interesting snippets of information about the early days of the SLBI. Her present was a broach depicting a gingko leaf – a fitting but somewhat inadequate reward for all her years of hard work. She will continue to play an active role in the Institute’s events and we all wish her well

Bob Francis

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Judy Marshall receiving broach from SLBI President Irene Palmer: Photo Roy Vickery

Understanding Weeds

A course run by June Chatfield held at the SLBI starting on Wednesday 24th September between 1.30-3.30pm for 4 weeks.

Weeds, battle against them or admire them for their persistence and efficiency. This course sets out to understand what makes a plant a weed, the characteristics and adaptations that enable them to thrive and how we and wildlife can use them or limit their domination. Some are even protected plants!

Peckham Rye Park Tree walk On Friday the 20th June a Tree walk took place in Peckham Rye Park. The walk was led by Dr Alan Harrington and was held jointly with the SLBI and the Friends of the Park. Although the walk was entitled "Concentrating on Conifers" , we were delighted to discover that Alan's expertise extends to trees of all types . One reason for holding the walk was because the existing "Peckham Rye Tree Trail" is now 20 years old, so the Friends and the park staff are keen for it to be updated. We also hope that more trees can be labelled with both English and Latin names as only a few are at present.

Peckham Rye Park and Common occupy an area of some 96.3 acres. Most of the walk took place within the park which was officially opened on the 14th May 1894. The design of the park was overseen by Lt Col J. J. Sexby, the first Chief Officer of Parks for the then newly created G.L.C. The creation of the park as we see it today took place in stages up until 1966 and the last major restoration took place in 2003-5. We did however extend the walk into parts of the common outside the park railings. A total of 60 trees and shrubs were examined during the walk and many more commented on in passing so there is only space here to discuss a few of them.

One of the first things spotted was what Alan described as a very good example of what is usually a large shrub Griselinia littoralis which had become tree sized. Near to that was a hornbeam Carpinus betulus the name means "hard tree." We were told that the wood of this tree is really hard and was once used to make wooden hammers and for the centre of a butcher's block and we were advised to note the nutlet at the base of the bract. Later by the lake we saw an unusual hornbeam found only in some collections; Carpinus japonica, the Japanese hornbeam.

Further on was a Monterey pine Pinus radiata the cones of which stay on for a long time and on each short shoot are three needles; Alan explaining that you must check the number of needles

when identifying pines. We also saw some Austrian pines Pinus nigra subsp. nigra which is a two needle pine, the blue atlas cedar Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca', a Japanese red cedar Cryptomeria japonica and a good example of the smooth Arizona cypress Cupressus arizonica var.glabra whose bark has characteristic blisters and three dimensional foliage.

We admired an impressive specimen of a dawn redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides and Alan helpfully gave guidance as to how to distinguish this tree from the swamp cypress Taxodium distichum which despite its name does not need a wet site. The trick is in the leaves; in the former they are distinctly larger and in opposite pairs; the latter has alternate leaves. Near the Bowling Green was a confusingly called box elder or ash- leaved maple Acer negundo. This was introduced into this country by Henry Compton, Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713, who was a considerable tree enthusiast. Another rarer maple was found near the lake Acer buergerianum, called the trident maple because it has ivy-like leaves shaped like a trident or perhaps because of the arrangement of the veins in the leaf.

In the walled garden, named after Col. Sexby, we looked at a Ginkgo biloba, the Maidenhair Tree.This was a female and we could see the green ovules. They are in pairs and Alan explained that only one develops which was obvious from the fact that one was a lot larger than the other. The chance of pollination is remote as male ginkgos seem to produce pollen only when the tree is pretty old.

Saxby Garden, Peckham Rye Park. Photo: Hanif Jafri

Near to that was a Russian olive or oleaster Elaeagnus angustifolia a relative of the sea buckthorn with silvery leaves covered in scales like frilly discs. There were winners and losers on this walk. Outside the park in the common was a dead tree.This was an Exeter elm Ulmus glabra ' Exoniensis' which Alan had examined two years previously at which time it was healthy and in full leaf. However inside the park was what Alan described as a lovely avenue of Ulmus ' New Horizon' trees planted in 2004/5 In a news item headed "Elms return to Speakers Corner" the July edition of The Garden states that these are a hybrid between U. pumila and U. davidiana var. japonica which has proved resistant to Dutch elm disease. So cross fingers that ours will survive!

We already knew there was a rare tree in the Arboretum, a cut-leaved lime, Tilia platyphy!os 'Laciniata'.Alan had not seen one before and on measuring it concluded it could be as old as 60 years and might therefore (possibly) have been planted at the time of the Coronation. We did not know however that there was another rare species here; a hybrid wingnut, Pterocarya x rehderiana. There are two major important species of wingnut, the Caucasian wingnut Pterocarya #axinifolia, of which we have several examples in the park, and the Chinese wingnut P. stenoptera. This tree is a hybrid between the two species. Also in the Arboretum was an American lime Tilia americana one of the less common lime species seen.

Near the lake were different species of hawthorn most interestingly the Armenian thorn Crataegus heterophy!a which was in vogue in the nineteenth

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century and can be seen in older parks. Luckily there are quite a few healthy looking ash trees in the park but one unusual one (in this species) was Fraxinus excelsior 'Diversifolia' -the single-leaved ash i.e. an ash tree where the leaves, which have jagged edges, are not divided.

Outside the park we saw a native black poplar Populus nigra subsp. betulifolia. This was had been spotted by Glynis Williams who had the identification confirmed by DNA test. The tree is a male clone - the 'Manchester' poplar. Alan pointed out the characteristic spiral galls on it, which are only found on the black poplar and its cultivars. Near the main gate of the park is a huge hybrid black poplar Populus x canadensis 'Regenerata'.

In conclusion it was wonderful to find out that there were so many unusual trees in our park and Alan is returning to the park on Friday 10th October 2014 for a follow up walk so we hope some of you will be able to come. We are meeting at 11.15 in the cafe on Strakers Road in the centre of Peckham Rye common. The Friends of Peckham Rye park have a website which gives more detail about the park and the Friends and how to join which only costs £5 ( £7.50 for famillies). http://www.foprp.org.uk

Anne Stanesby

The Trial of William Duncan - Gardener.This is the true story of William Duncan; accused of murdering his employer after a difference of opinion about how a vine should be pruned.William Duncan's birth certificate has not been found but from his age given at trial, it would appear that he was born on a date between 1783 and 1785. He was apprenticed for seven years to Alexander Winehouse, gardener and steward at Castle Fraser near the village of Kemnay in Aberdeenshire. Eliza Fraser, the then lady laird, had inherited Castle Fraser in 1792 and she employed Thomas White, a pupil of 'Capability' Brown as her landscape gardener. Castle Fraser is now a National Trust for Scotland property and well worth a visit. William Duncan also worked in the gardens of

The death of Mr Chivers reproduced from the Wandsworth Historian No 75

nearby of Kemnay House and it was at the latter location that he met the lady who was later to save his life, Elizabeth Burnett born in 1740, a member of the family who owned that estate.

In September 1804 the young William Duncan came to London. Scottish gardeners had a good reputation at the time and he came with excellent reference. He was described as being of respectable appearance, athletic looking, 21 or 22 years old, six feet tall and a sober quiet and excellent young man.

He first went to work for a Mr Langdale, a Distiller at Mitcham. It may seem hard to imagine now, but in the 18th and 19th centuries the activity for which Mitcham was best known was the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic herbs and the distillation of essences and perfumes. The Langdale estate also contained a conservatory, hot house, grapery, lawn, pleasure grounds and a garden and it is pretty certain that is where William Duncan was put to work. William Duncan is also known to have worked in the gardens of Robert Thornton who owned a large house and substantial garden on the South Side of Clapham Common .The ruins of the summer house built like a Corinthian temple can still be seen but that is all that remains. At that time the gardens in that area were very beautiful and it is sad to think of their subsequent destruction.

In January 1807 William Duncan went to work for Mr William Chivers a retired wine merchant aged 86. It is clear that in retirement Mr. Chivers had put his all into the care of his large garden which extended from Clapham

Common North Side to what is now Lavender Hill. Two identical houses called "The Sisters" were built in 1763 with an avenue of trees between them and Mr. Chivers owned one of them. The other one, called Gilmore house, No 113 still exists.

The employment lasted only 10 days. On Wednesday 21st January Mr. Chivers accused William Duncanof having spoilt his vine and ordered him to leave the following Saturday. This would have been a terrible setback for the young man because references were extremely important then as now. On the Saturday there was a confrontation and Duncan struck Chivers with a garden spade and killed him. Duncan was arrested and taken straight to the Justices who sat in the French Horn Inn which then stood on the South Side of East Hill Wandsworth. They committed him to Horsemonger Lane prison was located near to Newington Causeway SE1 and where prisoners were hung from the roof for all to see. A grand funeral was held for Mr. Chivers who is buried in St. Margarets Church Yard, Lee, London, SE13.

The trial took place in March at the Surrey Assizes held in the old Town Hall at Kingston. What sunk Duncan was the evidence of a Mr Whitman, baker of Battersea. This man had helped arrest Duncan and said in evidence that Duncan had confessed to him that he had been planning to kill Mr. Chivers since the Wednesday when he was sacked. Which, if believed, meant that the killing was premeditated and therefore amounted to murder. Duncan made an articulate unsworn statement in his defence from the dock saying that Chivers had attempted to strike him with his cane. Despite witnesses to good character including Elizabeth Burnett from Kemnay House in Scotland, Duncan was convicted of murder and sentenced to be hung the following Monday 23rd March 1807.

What followed next was rather remarkable. On the 22nd March 1897 a collective petition was lodged and the execution was deferred. Elizabeth Burnett then set about to prove that William Duncan was innocent of murder. She was able to show that Whitman had given various different

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versions of events and that there were many witnesses who had not been called at the trial who could have contradicted him. Mr. Thornton's gardener stated that he and another gardener had inspected the vine and that, so far from being spoiled, the vine had been as well pruned as the vine would allow. Two other gardeners who had worked for Mr Chivers stated that the latter was "of a very fraxious and worriting disposition” with a "vexing and aggravating temper." Mr Langdale's gardener added that Chivers had a reputation for striking his servants.

Duncan had been moved on 24th April 1807 to the Retribution prison hulk which was moored near Woolwich so he was probably put to work at the dockyard which was then being built. Conditions on these hulks were appalling and on 25th April 1807, possibly in desperation to end his life, Duncan wrote a letter of confession to murder. In any event this letter does not seem to have been taken into account, because the court decided that there were grounds for clemency as Duncan had never meant to harm the victim "who had tried to strike him and provoked him". Instead Duncan was sentenced to transportation for life.Sometime later that same year, Elizabeth Burnett died at the age of 67,so she never lived to find out what happened to the man whose life she had saved.

On 2nd July 1808 Duncan was one of 200 male convicts transported on the ship the Admiral Gambier arriving at Port Jackson ( Sydney) Australia on 20th December 1808. He was put on the stores, i.e. victualled by the government and assigned to a Colonel Molle and became his Overseer. (There is a newspaper report of Duncan asking for the return of some missing heifers belonging to his employer). On the 2nd April 1816 Duncan was given a conditional pardon and later that year he was granted 80 acres of land in Tasmania on the western side of the river Derwent at a place called Glenurchy (now a built up suburb of Hobart). On 12th December 1823 Duncan was appointed a Glenurchy Constable!

The only other references to Duncan is that by 1843 he had sold all his 80

acres but I have not been able to find out where and when he died or whether he ever got married or had any children. Unfortunately the name William Duncan is the Scottish equivalent of the name John Smith in England.

It is amazing that William Duncan escaped execution. Elizabeth Burnett worked tremendously hard to save him as can be seen from the documents held at the National Archives at Kew which contain all the numerous statements that she took, the skillful summary of the evidence and even a diagram of the lay out of the Justices chambers and ante-room where one of Whitman's contradictory statements was made.

She would have made a very good lawyer and if she had represented Duncan at his trial the verdict could well have been different.

Anne Stanesby

A.O.Hume -The Pope of Ornithology (1829 – 1912)On 21st April 2014 a small bird was seen flitting about the scrubby areas of Dungeness, Kent. This bird was had whitish underparts and an olive green back – the shape and behaviour of the bird suggested it was a warbler but the double wing bar pointed to it being a vagrant and very far from home (19,000 miles in fact). Some 165 years earlier, also far from home, a 20 year old Allan Octavian Hume arrived in British India at the start of a distinguished colonial career spanning 30 years, and as a political reformer and founder of the Indian National Congress. The connection between these two observations is that the warbler was identified as a Hume’s leaf warbler (Phy!oscopus humei), a relative of our chiffchaff, which normally breeds in countries bordering Tibet and overwinters in India; it was named by William Brooks in 1878 in honour of Allan Octavian Hume’s outstanding contribution to Indian ornithology. In common with Hume’s tawny owl (Strix butleri), Hume’s wheatear (Oenanthe alboniger); Hume’s lesser whitethroat (Sylvia althaea); Wedge-billed wren

babbler (Sphenocichla humei), Hume’s Groundpecker (Pseudopodoces humilis); Hume’s short-toed lark (Calandre!a acutirostris) and Mrs Hume’s Pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae), his leaf warbler is one of nine birds described by or in honour of him (or obliquely his wife); in all 13 taxa are named after him. He has been called the father of Indian Ornithology by some and, by those who found him dogmatic, as the Pope of Indian ornithology.

Hume’s introduction to ornithology was probably via hunting as he was a keen sportsman and some of his earliest specimens are ‘game’ birds intended for the table. However these hunting pursuits soon assumed a more academic dimension and he began to amass a vast collection of eggs, nests and skins of Asiatic birds totalling 63,000 specimens. He took meticulous care to house and label these specimens and spent £20,000 of his own money (£2 million in today’s money) building up a library and museum in rooms added on to his home at Rothney Castle, Simla  in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, formerly the summer capital of British India.

Another major intensification of his ornithological work was the full time appointment of W.R. Davison in 1872 who was Burmese and a gifted naturalist who he sent away for 6-7months each year collecting and preparing specimens; he also accompanied Hume on his expeditions. He was said to have an excellent memory but a poor communicator and according to Hume ‘he preferred the gun to the pen’. He was with Hume for 10 years until ill health curtailed his activities.

Hume made many expeditions to collect birds both when he was on sick leave and as and where his work took him. As the Commissioner of Inland Customs Hume and Director General of Agriculture he was responsible for the control of 2,500 miles of coast from near Peshawar in the northwest to Cuttack on the Bay of Bengal. During his travels he made a number of notes on various bird species. His expedition to the Indus area was one of the largest. In 1873, he visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Laccadive Islands in 1875, and in 1881

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he made his last ornithological expedition to Manipur. These expeditions were not low key affairs and some involved 60 or so men.

Hume’s contempt for authority and bureaucracy is borne out by his comment that ‘the fundamental principle of all public administration is to get hold of a man for a particular work who knows something about it, and put him under a man (or men) who know nothing about it, but who conscientiously eager to earn their pay, meddle and muddle in every case and take care that nothing is done’. His inability to suffer fools gladly led to many a spat with fellow ornithologists and politicians alike.

Like Darwin, Hume established a network of coadjutors from various parts of India and encouraged sportsman to keep a diary and record sighting and notes on bird (and other wildlife) identification, distribution, habits, migration etc. In 1872, to put this collected information on record he started a quarterly journal called Stray Feathers – A journal of ornithology for India and dependencies. This ran for 17 years (1872-1888) through 12 volumes and contained 5,495 pages most of which were written by Hume himself. He used the journal to publish descriptions of his new discoveries on his own observations as well as writing critical reviews of all the ornithological works of the time. In 1873 Hume published Nests and e$s of Indian Birds, followed by a well-illustrated Game Birds of India, Burma and Celon illustrated by C.H.T. Marshall who described Hume as ‘beyond all doubt the greatest authority on ornithology of the Indian Empire’. The Indian ornithological co!ector’s Vade Mecum was published by Hume in 1874. The culmination to his academic studies was to have been ‘A Conspectus of the avifauna of India and its dependencies’ drawn from the vast amount of data he had accumulated over 25 years of observation. In 1884 he vacated his house leaving it in the care of servants only to find, to his horror on his return, that all his papers, manuscripts, correspondence (weighing several hundredweight) had been sold as waste paper at the local bazaar by a disgruntled servant who broke into the museum to steal them. Hume never got over this cataclysmic

Hume’s leaf warbler Phylloscopus humei. Photo : downloaded from the Internet

event which all but killed off his interest in ornithology. He writes ‘I have no heart to undertake a rewrite, for ornithology no longer has the interest for me it once had’. His last piece of ornithological writing was done in 1891 as part of an Introduction to the Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission, an official publication on the contributions of Dr Ferdinand Stoliczka, who died during the return journey of this mission.

Hume decided to offload his collection and offered it to the British Museum which showed little initial interest in it although he could have sold it to America for £10,000. Eventually peer pressure and the deteriorating state of the collection forced the British Museum (Natural History) to send out Bowdler Sharpe to supervise the packing and transport of 18,500 eggs, 500 nests, 63,000 bird skins including 2,830 birds of prey, 1,155 owls, 2,145 waders, 813 parrots, 2,120 sand grouse, 2000 sunbirds and white-eyes. The collection included 258 skins of type specimens. 20,000 items had to be disposed of because of infestation or poor preservation. There was a small but significant collection of 400 mammals which was described as ‘one of the finest collection of mammals received by the museum’. In all 47 half ton packing

crated had to be transported from Hume’s museum 7,500 feet up in the mountains to the local railway station and thence to London. This material now resides in the Tring branch of the British Museum where it is of major interest to anyone researching Asian avifauna.

Hume’s scientific work continued when he returned in retirement to England and he transferred his vigour and industry to the study of botany as documented previously in the SLBI Gazette.

References

Biographies for Birdwatchers by Barbara and Richard Mearns (1988) Academic Press ISBN 0-12-487422-3

Lecture notes from Hume’s ornithological activities in India by Nigel Collar. Birdlife International delivered 23rd October 2012 at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington.

Bob Francis

Gazette ItemsArticles or enquires should be emailed to rbrtfranc@gmail.com or sent c/o The South London Botanical Institute. Copy for January should be with the editor by mid December

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Ashtead Common, Surrey SLBI field meeting July 2014A field meeting of the SLBI was held on 5th July 2014 to Ashtead Common, Surrey, a National Nature Reserve owned and run by the Corporation of London since 1989/1990. Ashtead Common is some 500 acres and there has been active management since 1990 using Sussex red cattle that come from time to time to graze. The Corporation also manages other pasture woodland sites of Burnham Beeches, Bucks, and Epping Forest, Essex as well as grassland sites on the North Downs. There are many old oak pollards, additional dead standing wood from a fire and the NNR designation is from its rich insect fauna in dead wood, particularly beetles. The common is immediately behind Ashtead railway station and free trail leaflets are obtainable from a dispenser outside the reserve office. A previous visit was arranged in July 2013 for the British Naturalists’ Association and the species recorded were broadly similar.

Ashtead Common is a sloping site rising from Wood Field in the valley of the Rye Brook to the ancient oak woodland on the skyline to the west. The high ground consists of London Clay that has a somewhat acid and poorly drained soil. This clay is a challenging environment as it can be waterlogged in wet weather or baked hard and dry with large cracks in the rides in times of drought. River gravels and alluvium lie on top of the bedrock in Wood Field and the brook, arising from the chalk of the dip slope of the North Downs near Epsom, brings somewhat calcareous water to the site. The main village of Ashtead lies on higher ground of the Lambeth Beds to the east with the smaller settlement of Lower Ashtead on the fringes of the common. In the past commoners’ rights would have been exercised and the common an important part of the local economy of a then rural population of traditional ways.

Wood Field

Our investigations started by the ditch and tall vegetation along Wood Field Road with sallow, greater willowherb

and hard rush. Further tall vegetation by the Rye Brook produced more greater willowherb with yellow flag and pendulous sedge. Wood Field was an interesting patchy grassland with damp indicators including soft, hard, compact, toad and slender rushes, the latter being an introduced species that is spreading and is also found on Wimbledon Common. In damp hollows were grey plants of sneezewort with white flowers that are in the same genus as yarrow but with simple elongate rather than feathery branched leaves. Soft and compact rushes have a broad, continuous pith and were used for making rush lights in the eighteenth century as described by the Reverend Gilbert White in The Natural History of Selborne (1789) and William Cobbett in Rural Rides (1820). Curiously no-one found common spotted orchid that was found last year on the preparatory visit of 8th July.

Greater Yellow-rattle

One feature of this field is the abundance of good patches of yellow-rattle, a hemi-parasite that attaches to the roots of grasses for water and minerals, although it has green leaves and makes its own food by photosynthesis. Later in the month last year there were patches where the grasses had been stunted and were not flowering when amongst the yellow-rattle. The plant could be a useful management tool for conservation in

controlling rank grass for conservation. At the time of the BNA visit in later July 2013 the flowering was largely over with brown dry seed pods demonstrating the rattling sound. This time we were at the peak flowering time and it was Frances

O’Farrell who pointed out that the greater yellow-rattle Rhinanthus augustifolius was known to be here. This is a larger plant with narrower leaves and the lower lip of the flower horizontal instead of dipping down into a beak as for the more common species, hence the genus name meaning “nose flower”.

Referring to The New Atlas of the British Flora (Pearman et al.,2002) in the SLBI Library, the greater yellow-rattle is an annual root parasite that was once a widespread agricultural weed in the east of England but the remaining sites are now in grassland and scrub on chalk. It is a Neophyte, a comparatively recent introduction, that was first recorded in the wild in 1724. However, nearly all of the pre-1970 sites were lost by 1930 following a general trend in decline of arable weeds. It was not recognised on the North Downs until 1966 by Ted Lousley. In his Flora of Surrey (it is illustrated on Plate 20 and described as very rare on chalk grassland found at Coulsdon and Chipstead near Croydon. Lousley also said: R. angustifolius is not easily distinguished #om R. minor on the chalk. In Flora of the London Area (Burton 1986) but under the name R. serotinus confirms this distribution and comments: There is no knowing whether it went undetected until 1966 because it had only recently arrived or because it had gone unnoticed among R. minor which is also at Chipstead. This used to be #equent in old grassland but is disappearing in step with the ‘improvement’ of that habitat.... It is interesting to note that the Corporation of London manage some chalk grassland in the Coulsdon area with the same cattle that are used at Ashtead so that might be the link with Ashtead. Very recently Jovita Kaunang and Graham Collins have found it at Warren Farm, Nonsuch, that is former arable land now calcareous grassland not far away. It would be useful to re-examine herbarium material of Rhinanthus from old collections.

The Common

A good network of way-marked paths allows the common and woods to be explored. The afternoon was spent following a wide grassy ride through the semi-open scrubby area to the oak pollards but further exploration was curtailed through another belt of rain.

Greater Yellow-rattle (Rhinanthus angustifolius) at Ashtead. Phot0: J. Chatfield.

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Damp poorly drained London Clay with an acid soil yielded Lesser Spearwort in puddles, grey leaves of marsh cudweed and various rushes with marsh bird’s-foot trefoil and marsh thistle in the taller vegetation at the side where there was also a good deal of bracken. This would have been kept in check through its use for animal bedding in the days of active commoning.

Animal life

An attractive caterpillar of the knot grass moth was found on grey willow by the ditch in Wood Field Road. In spite of its name these cater pillars feed on a wide range of herbaceous plants and shrubs, including willows but they emerge into a less spectacular brown moth. The knot grass moth typically lives on commons and occurs throughout Surrey (Collins, 1997). The six-spot burnet, a colourful red and black day-flying moth, was on the wing in Wood Field nectaring on various flowers while their empty pupa cases, were attached to stems of plants. Also on the wing during sunny spells were butterflies: meadow brown, ringlets and skippers whose caterpillars feed on grasses and a small tortoiseshell that breeds on stinging nettles, preferring those in the sun. It is good to see small tortoiseshell back after some years of absence. A dark bush cricket was found on shrubs along the ride on the common. Soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) were present on the sward and flower heads of Wood Field and white-lipped snails and Kentish snails on wayside vegetation by the Rye Brook. All of these animals depend on plants directly or indirectly for food and shelter.

Plant galls also provided some interest, particularly the bracken gall Chirosia grossicauda. Looking at bracken fronds, some of the pinnae seemed rather short and this was due to rolling up caused by a fly that lays its eggs in the tips of the pinna. It is very easy to spot in July and August and was abundant in many places in 2013. With English oak as the dominant tree on the higher parts of the common, there was evidence of artichoke galls and marble galls both formed by tiny gall wasps. It was however rather early for many of the

galls so a gall survey would be good in August some time.

Thanks are due to Sandra Evans, one of the volunteers on the common, for keeping us on the right track and also for inviting us in to her bungalow to escape the lunchtime shower so we could eat in the dry supplied with coffee and tea. There is an active team of volunteers working with Rangers on Ashtead Common and details can be downloaded from their website. Adjacent to Ashtead Common and of equal extent is Epsom Common but with different geology offering contrasting habitat with some heathy vegetation on the sands and large ponds. It would be worth a field day some time to explore Epsom Common.

June Chatfield

Herbarium Plant Mounting Workshop 25th January 2014 The workshop organised by Petra Broddle ran in two sessions one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The morning session, which I attended, was full to capacity and everyone had not only enjoyed themselves but had learned the basics of mounting and handling herbarium specimens.

The specimens were all from a collection left to Petra and handed on to the SLBI on the death of Howard Davies. It is important to freeze all donated specimens on arrival so as to remove the risk of further damage by

pests and contaminating of other specimens in the herbarium. Samples which had suffered damage and were not worth preserving were disposed of leaving a great many well preserved specimens suitable for mounting. Under supervision this was done by people with little or no experience.

Petra had assistance of a friend from the Kew Herbarium where the pace of work of mounting specimens is one which none of us could have hoped to attain. We were taught about the handling of specimens, about the materials and tools needed the arrangement of plants on sheets and the preservation of written information.

Handling Specimens - plants being dry and brittle have to be kept as flat as possible.

Materials and Tools - use acid free paper and water soluble glue. Brushes, sponges and warm water are used during mounting. Large quantities of absorbent paper such as newspaper and sandbags are used for pressing mounted specimens during drying out period.

Arranging Plants on Sheets - arrangement should be aesthetically pleasing as well as providing necessary information for botanists such as displaying all available parts of the plant, the name of collector, location, date of collecting and any species identification.

Preservation of Written Information - most specimens in Howard’s collection were meticulously

Specimen being prepared for the herbarium Photo : Jenny Neal

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marked many with tags attached to the specimen. It was emphasised that each one should be carefully preserved together with the plant, if it was sound, to which it was attached.

The Pros and Cons of Different Mounting Methods

While some basic principles applied to all aspects of mounting such as acid free, paper, and glue, those with experience had their own preferences in using either glue to fix specimens to the paper or using paper hinges or thread for this purpose. Both methods were demonstrated and the reasons explained for using one method over another. In this workshop glue was used by everyone.

Many of those who attended the workshop had collections of their own and wanted to learn the best way of preserving them. The collection used for the workshop contained examples of what happens to specimens over time if they are not kept in excellent conditions and t cease to be of value to botanists.* * * I  Tyszkiewicz  

It’s minus 40oC degrees at Kew!Here at the South London Botanical Institute we are proud that our Herbarium contains over 100,000 specimens of dried flowers and grasses. But did you know that the Kew Gardens Herbarium contains a

staggering 7.5 million specimens made up of 250,000 type of specimens? These are some of the interesting facts that a group of SLBI staff and volunteers discovered in April on a fascinating visit to the Kew Herbarium and Library.

The Victorian wing is the oldest part with specimens stored in wooden cabinets. Large windows avoided the need for gas light (which was a fire hazard) but means there are numerous entrance points for insects that could easily ruin Kew’s priceless collection. The newer purpose built wings are easier to maintain with metal cabinets and state-of-the-art temperature and humidity control. In total there are 160 insect traps which are changed four times per year, so creepy crawlies beware! The collection is categorized in five geographic regions and we were delighted to see a herbarium specimen associated with Charles Darwin. These days new samples are obtained by specialist research teams who have special permission to conduct vegetation surveys, for example in a country prior to mining operations (with an agreement that the plants are re-introduced afterwards). We saw boxes with new collections from Borneo.The Kew collection grows by a mammoth 35,000 specimens each year so they have to keep building new wings as their cupboards fill up.

The Collection Management Unit processes 62,000 specimens per year. This includes an amazing “global

This blasted heath – the future of lowland heathland, acid grassland and mire. Free public lecture series, Autumn 2014. Friday evenings, 18:30, Oct 10th to Nov 14th 2014, Birkbeck University of London.

In Act I of “Macbeth”, Shakespeare used a heath near Forres as the forbidding setting of a supernatural encounter. Heaths have long had a bad public image. Most heaths are ancient. They were established when woodland was cleared in places with an underlying geology forming an impoverished acidic soil, and maintained by traditional practices. However, they are diminishing throughout the country, even if pockets are still to be found in the southern counties and in the suburbs of London. These remnant heathlands are now much valued as natural open spaces. They are precious because they support a specialised biota, some of which is not found elsewhere. Loss may occur from ecological succession following the neglect of traditional management, or conversion to agriculture or to urban development. How can the remaining patches be saved? How can these important areas be managed to best effect? Management practices in different sites will be discussed and compared. Current problems will be highlighted and specialised conditions for particular groups of plants and animals discussed.

This is an advance notice of the lecture series. Details of the six individual lectures and of the venue will be available later. To receive this further information please reply to ecssoc@gmail.com or consult the website http://www.bbk.ac.uk/geds/our-research/ecss/free-public-lectures

herbarium swap shop”. Specimens are loaned to overseas organizations for their research and Kew receives loans for study by its researchers. New additions to Kew’s permanent collection start their journey by going into a giant walk-in freezer where the temperature is reduced to -40o C (SLBI’s freezer is -20oC). All together it is a complex and impressive operation with strict controls and attention to detail. Finally we saw new specimens being prepared and mounted to go into Kew’s Herbarium. After lengthy training, staff are able to mount up to 35 specimens per day.

Kew’s Herbarium is outstanding and plays a vital role for the nation. Our (SLBI) collection is on a very different scale, but has its own special charm and story to tell – we are open on a Thursdays (from 10am-4pm) or at other times by appointment.

Christine Shepherd

Photo : Petra Broddle