ought by Sir Cennydd Traherne in 1939. He then presented the estate to Glamorgan County Council (Banks, 1977). Charles C. Eley (1873–1960) of East Bergholt Place in Suffolk, was a contemporary of Cory. He was a successful industrialist who had a particular interest in Himalayan plants <strong>and</strong>, unusually for East Anglia at this time, succeeded in growing rhododendrons <strong>and</strong> other Himalayan taxa in his garden (Eley, 1925; Hatfield et al., 1980). He had also sponsored in a minor way the fourth Forrest expedition from 1919 to 1920 (McLean, 2004). In around 1969, Dick <strong>and</strong> Jane Banks of Hergest Croft, Herefordshire went to stay at East Bergholt Place with Maxwell Eley, Charles’ son. They were given ‘cuttings of an Indigofera with long racemes of a good pink.’ Charles Eley had obtained material from Reginald Cory but no one knew its name. Could this plant have come originally from seed of F.14880? The Banks planted out their rooted cutting (1671235) in the NE section of their Mixed Border in c. 1972. This plant reached some 1.5 × 1.5 m in height <strong>and</strong> Dick Banks noted on his detailed record card that the East Bergholt plant was even taller. In July 1987, Roy Lancaster sent material from Hergest to RBG Edinburgh, where it was incorrectly identified as I. dielsiana Craib. A cutting (1674141) from the above shrub was planted out in the same border in December 1990. When BS <strong>and</strong> SA saw this plant of I. howellii in July 1996, it was 2.1 × 1.5 m, with a single stem 2–3 cm in diameter, flowering in all its glory (Fig. 3). Another collection which we saw in July 1996 was at the home of Maurice <strong>and</strong> Rosemary Foster at Ivy Hatch, Kent. M. Foster 93.099 had been collected in fruit at the Zhongdian (formerly Chungtien) Gorge, Yunnan on November 6, 1993. M. Foster 93.099A was found at the top of the plateau at 2800 m, <strong>and</strong> is I. pendula. Further down the road <strong>and</strong> on the same day M. Foster 93.099B was collected at a slightly lower altitude. It was not until young plants were raised that the difference was noted. M. Foster 93.099B was identified as Indigofera sp., this plant stood 1.5 m high in a pot, in a polytunnel when we saw it. Luckily, we had taken herbarium material from this plant (S. <strong>Andrews</strong> & B.D. <strong>Schrire</strong> 1611 (K!) <strong>and</strong> can confirm that it was I. howellii. Unfortunately, the plant no longer exists <strong>and</strong> there is still some confusion as to its origin (Maurice Foster, pers. comm.). Another example of Indigofera howellii was seen by us in May <strong>and</strong> June 1997 at Marwood Hill Gardens, near Barnstaple in North 82 © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011.
Fig. 3. Indigofera howellii at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire. Photograph <strong>Brian</strong> <strong>Schrire</strong>. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011. 83
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