of Allium (A. farreri Stearn, 1930). Stearn repeatedly returned to the genus Allium, and was considered a world expert on it; many species bear his name. 1930 would also see his first bibliographic work, on the botanist Reginald Farrer, whom he named Allium farreri after, and also described Rosa farreri (1933) and other species named after Farrer. It was while he was compiling Farrer's works in 1930 that he came across the latter's work, The English Rock-Garden (1919) and its account of Barren-worts (Epimedium), and kindled a lifetime interest in the genus. From 1932, he produced a series of papers on this genus, studying it at Cambridge, Kew and Paris. It became one of the genera which he was best known, and many species of which now bear his name. Epimedium and the related woodland perennial Vancouveria (Berberidaceae) would be the subject of his first monograph (1938) and were genera to which he would return at the end of his life. At the time the taxonomy of this genus was very confused, and with the help of the Cambridge Herbarium he obtained specimens from all over Europe to produce a comprehensive monograph. The work was so thorough that it was mistakenly considered a doctoral thesis by other botanists. He also began a series of contributions to the catalogue of the Herbarium, together with Gilmour and Tutin. Later work After moving to London, Stearn produced a steady output of publications during his years at the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library (1933–1952). These covered a wide range of topics from bibliography to plant nomenclature, taxonomy and garden plants, with a particular emphasis on Vinca, Epimedium and Lilium. Within two years of joining the library in 1933, he had produced his first major monograph, Lilies (1935), in collaboration with Drysdale Woodcock and John Coutts. This text, in an expanded and revised edition, as Woodcock and Stearn's Lilies of the World (1950) became a standard work on the Liliaceae sensu lato. While at the library he also continued his collaboration with his Cambridge colleagues, publishing catalogues of the Herbarium collections, including the Catalogue of the Collections of the Herbarium of the University Botany School, Cambridge (1935). The second task imposed on him at this time involved the RHS role in maintaining revision of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (see Botanical taxonomy). After his return to London in 1946, at the end of the