A fine copy of this rare work on willows with beautiful hand-coloured plates, each depicting a different species of willow populating the garden at Woburn Abbey. The 140 plates are in lovely condition and the folding lithograph plate is captioned “Johnson’ Willow Destroyed by a Storm Aprl 28th 1829” and was drawn by H.W. Burgess and printed by C. Hullmandel.
James Forbes states in his introduction that the “Catalogue comprises all the foreign and indigenous Willows that could possibly be procured in England, many of which are new and nondescript plants …”
While this work was authored by James Forbes, the foundation of this garden was established by his predecessor, George Sinclair (1787-1834). Having gained acclaim for his work on the gardens of the Hon. G. Baillie of Jerviswood, Sinclair served the Gordon family and - through Lady Georgiana’s marriage to John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford - was appointed gardener at Woburn Abbey. The garden boasted a collection of over 200 different species of English willow, conceived and carried out by George Sinclair, and continued by James Forbes (1773-1861), his successor.
Sinclair was also encouraged to experiment and, under the direction of Sir Humphrey Davy, dividing an area in the garden into 242 plots in which he compared the growth of different species and mixtures of grasses in different soil types. He published the results of the experiments in the third edition of Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis: or an account of the results of experiments on the produce and nutritive qualities of different grasses, reporting that the plots with turf having diverse plant species were more productive than the plots with fewer species planted from seed. Indeed, the results were such that a manuscript copy of Darwin’s Origin of the Species … contained a reference to an article describing Sinclair’s work in biodiversity. Sinclair served the Duke until 1824 at which time he entered in partnership with Cormack & Son, nurserymen and seedsmen of New Cross.
Hector, A. & Hooper, R., “Darwin and the First Ecological Experiment” in Science, 295, (2002) pp.639-640; Nissen BBI 642; Pritzel 2960.
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