| Description | Manuscript and typescript letters and reports, printed documents, and press cuttings, with a drawing and leaf sample, relating to matters of economic botany in 'Turkey and West Asia', including Turkey, Greece, Syria, and Palestine. Includes letters to Hooker, Thiselton-Dyer, Morris, Nicholson and Stapf, and letters by Thiselton-Dyer and notes by Morris. Includes correspondence between Kew and the Foreign Office.
Includes sections relating to the following subjects:
-- Artemisia --
(Ff205-209) Papers regarding identification of specimens from Mesopotamia and seeds from Iraq. Includes letters from the Imperial Institute and Roger Thomas [Director of Agriculture, Iraq], and C R Rapley.
-- Botany of Syria and Palestine --
(Ff1-7) Papers including pages of the Ordnance Survey of Sinai regarding Palestine.
-- Currants --
(Ff165-183, 210) Papers regarding identification of 'currants' and 'raisins' and their different rates of custom duty; the Greek currant trade; and the absence of currant vines in Iraq, and potential to develop a raisin industry. Includes the following printed documents:
- CURRANT AND SULTANA CULTURE AT PATRAS AND SMYRNA
- VII. THE SMYRNA RAISIN TRADE (1893).
-- Gardener for Therapia --
(Ff8-17) Papers regarding employment of William Gammie in the embassy gardens in Therapia [Constantinople [Istanbul]], further recruitment, and tree planting.
-- Gum Labdanum --
(Ff127-137) Papers regarding Kew's acquisition of a rake used for collecting gum labdanum [also 'ladanum' or 'laudanum']. Includes following printed document:
- W T Thiselton-Dyer, THE COLLECTION OF GUM LABDANAM IN CRETE (1884).
-- Latakia --
(Ff19-47) Papers regarding the cultivation of Latakia tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and on procuring seeds for Kew, including letters from G Jackson Eldridge [Consul General Beirut] and George [Edward] Post. Includes a watercolour drawing of the leaf and flower of the tobacco plant, by [?S] A Deacon. Includes the following printed documents:
- W T Thiselton-Dyer, ON THE PLANT YIELDING LATAKIA TOBACCO
- TURKISH TOBACCO. NICOTIANA TABACUM, VAR: MACROPHYLLA - DUNAL. AND NICOTIANA RUSTICA.-L.
-- Oaks --
(Ff79-102) Papers regarding oaks, including request for specimens of oaks growing in Bitlis; local uses of gall nut oak; and different varieties of valonia oak, including reference to use in tanning. Includes letters from Lt Col. William Everett and W N Evans. Includes the following printed document:
- PRODUCTION OF VALONIA AT SMYRNA [1893]
-- Palestine Plants --
(Ff185-204) Papers regarding collection of Palestinian plants by John E Dismore, and correspondence between Kew and Frank Vester and Co, The American Colony Stores, Jerusalem, regarding acquiring herbarium and wood specimens.
-- Phylloxera (Turkey) --
(Ff138-154) Papers regarding phylloxera in Smyrna and efforts to prevent its spread. Includes the following printed document:
- THE PHYLLOXERA IN TURKEY (1894).
-- Pistacia Terebinthus --
(Ff76-78) Printed documents, comprising:
- Professor Flückiger, NOTES ON CHIAN TURPENTINE [1880]
- John Clay, CHIAN TURPENTINE [1880]
- W T Thiselton-Dyer, NOTES ON CYPRIAN DRUGS. I. CYPRIAN TURPENTINE. II. GUM LABDANUM
-- Rahat Loukoum --
(Ff155-164) Papers regarding difficulties experienced by the Turkish Delight industry. Includes following printed document:
- SWEETMEAT INDUSTRY IN TURKEY (1894).
-- Shiraz Tobacco --
(Ff48-75) Papers regarding shiraz tobacco (Nicotiana persica) [Nicotiana alata] including the sending of seeds, its cultivation, and local use. The tobacco is also referred to as 'tumbeki' and 'tumbaku'. Includes copy of report by Haider Ali Khan of Shiraz, and letters from J Hornsey Casson, including (f67) leaf specimen of 'tambaku from Rakan' [21 May 1890]. Includes the following printed documents:
- E M Holmes, TUMBEKI
- E Spencer Pratt [United States Consulate-General, Tehran], THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY OF PERSIA (1891).
-- Trebizond [Trabzon] Tea --
(Ff103-126) Papers regarding tea made from Vaccinium arctostaphylos, and on sending specimens of 'native tea', and acquiring tree plants for Kew. Also includes letters regarding ‘Serkys’ tea, including its preparation, and its use by Turkish women. Includes the following printed documents:
- W T Thiselton-Dyer, TEA MADE FROM VACCINIUM ARCTOSTAPHYLOS (1885)
- VACCINUM ARCTOSTAPHYLOS AS A TEA SUBSTITUTE [1895]
Volume also contains (f18) newspaper cutting regarding the prohibition of hemp cultivation, in order to reduce the consumption of 'hashish', and (ff125-126) copy of 'extract from a Report by Major-General T E Gordon on a journey from Tehran to Karun.. and Mohamrah [1891] regarding the liquorice plant, and the use of the root in America for 'quid tobacco and fancy drinks'. |