Acknowledgements

In the more than ten years that I have been working on the Hortus, many people have assisted me. But I must give special thanks to the following:

John and Edwina Macarthur-Stanham, the seventh generation of Macarthurs to have lived at Camden Park, provided the necessary encouragement to start the Hortus. Without their practical support in providing unfettered access to library, archives, and garden, it would never have come to fruition.

Nick Caldwell has worked tirelessly on the design of the Hortus. Without Nick’s flair and expertise it would not have been possible. I cannot thank him enough. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance given by Mathew Smith in the early stages of this project. Mathew gave valuable programming input but was unable to continue.

Judy Blood and Miguel Garcia of the library of the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney and Kirsten Cowley of the Library of the National Herbarium, CSIRO, Black Mountain Laboratory, Canberra gave me unstinting assistance. Dr. Elizabeth Freeman, of the School of History and Classics at the University of Tasmania has also been generous with her time in translating Latin and French texts.

John Wrigley, Alan Robinson, and Dr Ian Willis of the Camden Historical Society provided valuable information on the history of Camden Park. The volunteers at the Camden Park Nursery Group are doing valuable work in making the Hortus a practical tool for the maintenance and rejuvenation of the Camden Park gardens.

My family has been understanding and supportive from the beginning. My daughters Lucy and Catriona and son Euan have provided both moral and practical support. Euan is a plant propagator extraordinaire. My wife Agnes is no longer surprised at requests to ‘just call in’ to botanic gardens and libraries wherever we are and has become a most able research assistant. The Hortus Camdenensis would have withered long since without them.

Colin Mills