E.A. BOWLES & HIS GARDEN AT MYDDELTON HOUSE 1865-1954

(BOWLES) ALLAN, Mea. E.A. BOWLES & HIS GARDEN AT MYDDELTON HOUSE 1865-1954. London: Faber and Faber, (1973). 8vo. Cloth, dust jacket. 264 pages, 8 pages color plates and 31 pages of black-and-white photographs and illustrations. First edition. The author "tells the story of Edward Augustus Bowles, one of the greatest gardeners and most beloved personalities, who regarded plants as individuals banished botanical misfits and curiosities to his Lunatic Asylum under the keepership of a sane-minded magnolia." Bowles transformed the garden at Myddelton and, as a keen traveller, especially to Europe and North Africa, brought home with him many specimens of plant. Such was his collecting zeal that, by the turn of the century, he was growing over 130 specimens of colchi and crocus. Very good.