From 1937 to 2009 the Australian Federal, State and Territory Governments, jointly, stationed a succession of botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Their role was twofold: first, to service inquiries from Australia for information from the vast collections of plant specimens, literature and archives: second, to conduct research on their own special areas of interest.
Fifty-two botanists spent terms averaging a year at Kew (one twice), with visits to other herbaria in Britain and on the Continent. The information gathered supported immeasurably the quality of thousands of scientific books and papers. Further, by updating the nomenclature on specimens (often unchanged since the 19th century) they improved the standard of collections both in the herbaria visited and in Australian herbaria. With an essay on the history of the scheme and an essay on each person who held the post, this book is illustrated with photographs of each ABLO, staff at Kew and many aspects of Kew and other herbaria.
