The Archibald Archive - Fieldnotes

Travels

Between 1962 and 2010 Jim made a series of trips to many continents and countries looking for plants. A detailed log of expeditions and of the countries visited, dates and field numbers used is to be found by clicking here for a List of Expeditions.

Jim Archibald made about 43 expeditions to non UK locations to seek out plants and seed. It is possible there were one or two expeditions more than this, as there are gaps in the field notes record. The problem is that Jim often left gaps in field numbers deliberately, so a gap does not necessarily mean a missing expedition (see list of expeditions, above).

Most of these expeditions were in the company of one or more other people, and of course a lot of them were taken together with Jenny. His most frequent travelling companion other than Jenny was Norman Stevens of Cambridge Bulbs, another intrepid traveller and bulb specialist. 

Other fellow travellers included John Andrews, John Blanchard, Panayoti Kelaidis, Wayne Roderick, Robert Rolfe, Janis Ruksans, Mike Salmon, Arnis Seisums, Janette Stevens, Kurt Vickery, Bob Wallis and Lyn Weeks.

The big table to the bottom of this page gives a Chronological list of Expeditions, and access to Jim's scanned Fieldnotes.
. . . .
Field numbers

Jim worked in the tradition of the classic plant hunters in whose company he is more than worthy to be included. On each of his trips he kept a sequential numbered log of the plants he saw and deemed of sufficient interest to be included. Thus JCA 1 refers to an Aroid sp. the first plant recorded on his first trip, to Corsica, and JCA 19780 to Iris iberica the last plant on his last trip, to Georgia.

It should be appreciated that these are not collection numbers. Only a percentage of the plants recorded involved a collection, a lot of the numbers relate to plants observed but not sampled. Another tranche of the numbers relates to plants from which herbarium specimens were taken and subsequently lodged with Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Jim largely collected seed and for a lot of the plants seen and recorded no seed was available at the time. For each field number, field information was recorded in the form of a description of that plant, conditions in which it was growing (aspect, soil, ph etc) and plant associations.

Field Notes

The bottom half of this page is a table with a chronological listing of all Jim's travels.  

Links (in bold) take you to the field notes from these trips. Where we have them, we show good readable material; occasionally we only have scrappy ad hoc notes. 

In the field he made rough notes in a pocket notebook which were later transcribed into a ledger book in his ‘best’ handwriting. For a lot of expeditions, typed lists were produced, for it must be remembered that all Jim’s trips were commercially based. Although Jim was an avid plant enthusiast and expert as well as an accomplished shower at AGS and SRGC shows, first and foremost this was his living. Jim progressed to making his living from seed after about 20 years as a commercial retail and wholesale nurseryman who had till then made occasional seed expeditions on a subscription basis.

If anyone has material other than appended here, please share it with us.
List of Expeditions, Links to Scanned Fieldnotes and Comments 

Click on the bold links to view the Fieldnotes in Adobe pdf format.

YearDatesTripDestination (and weblink)Field NumbersNotes
1961Working at Jack Drake's Inshriach Alpine Nursery in school and university vacations
196228 Mar - 11 Apr 19621Corsica00001 – 00073
19624 July - 20 Aug 19622Morocco, High Atlas (plus handwritten version of these)00074 – 00301
196422 July - 25 Aug 19643Yugoslavia / Greece00302 – 00770Moved to Dorset to lay foundations of a specialist plant-nursery at Buckshaw Gardens, Dorset.
1966March - Sept 19664North Africa / Middle East:Sp / Mor / Alg / Lib / Leb / Iraq / Iran / Tun00771 – 03317Joined in Dorset by Eric Smith, propagator in the herbaceous & alpine department at Hilliers of Winchester. Main concerns Dionysia and Iris of Section Oncocyclus.
1967Commenced business in partnership with Eric Smith trading as ‘The Plantsmen’, specialising in growing unusual herbaceous plants and alpines.
?5?03318 – 03399
197029 May - 12 Jun 19706Spain03400 – 03575with Lyn Weeks
?7?03576 – 03999
1975-1983After Eric Smith retired, Jim & his wife Jenny ran the nursery mainly on a wholesale basis supplying more specialised retail outlets such as the RHS Plant Centre Wisley.
19787 - 28 January 19788Colombia04000 – 04099
197922 Mar - 1 Apr 19799Yugoslavia04100 – 04161
?10?04162 – 04299
198225 April - 7 May 198211Morocco04300 – 04704with John Blanchard & Mike Salmon
1983Jim & Jenny decide to devote all their time to seed-collecting after winding-up the nursery.
1983Oct - Dec 198312Europe04705 – 04999Field no's not used, only JJA no's
19847 May - 29 July 198413Europe: Yug / Gre / Tun / Gre / Yug / Ita 05000 – 05648
198421 Sept - 19 Oct 198414Europe: Fra / Spa / Fra / Ita / Fr a05650 – 05844
19854 April - 31 Aug 198515Yugoslavia / Gre / Turk / Gre / Yug / Aus / Ita / Fra05850 – 07333
198622 May - 15 Oct 198616France / Yug / Gre / Tur / Aus / Ger07350 – 08415
198718 Jun - 24 Sep 198717USA: Wyom / Utah / Col / New Mex / Ariz / Utah / Nev 08500 – 09696Handwritten fieldnotes
?18?09700 – 09769
1988Jim & Jenny move from Dorset to Wales to start to grow plants again.
19887 July - 16 Sept 198819Turkey / Ger / Fra / Italy / Austria / Yug / Italy09770 – 10299
198913 May - 5 Sept 198920USA: Calif / Nev / Utah / Col / Wyom / Oreg / Idaho10500 – 1185511765 on are Wayne Roderick & JA colls
199027 May - 1 July 199021Yugoslavia / Italy / France/ Spain11900 – 12210
199120 Jan - 14 Mar 199122Chile / Argentina12250 – 12675with John Andrews
19917 - 25 Sept 199123Spain / France / Italy12700 – 12879
199220 May - 12 July 199224USA: California / Oregon12700 – 1329012700 - 12879 no's used twice, based with Stan Farwig & Vic Girard
19932 June - 27 June 199325USA: New Mex / Ariz / Utah / Nev / Calif / Texas13291 – 13609
19931 July - 29 July 199326Ecuador13610 – 14012
19942 Feb - 11 March 199427Argentina14100 – 14458with John Andrews
199427 May - 16 Jun 199428Turkey14500 – 14809with Norman Stevens
19957 June - 5 Aug 199529USA: Calif / Oreg / Nev / Utah / New Mex / Ariz / Col14850 – 15480
199612 - 28 March 199630South Africa15500 – 15880with Panayoti Kelaidis
19965 June - 12 June 199631Greece15900 – 16018with Norman Stevens & Robert Rolfe
199819 Jun - 24 Jul 199832USA: Calif / Oreg / Wash / Idaho /Utah / Wyom / Col16100 – 16595
20008 - 15 February 200033New Zealand16600 – 16649
200022 May - 9 Jun 200034Iran16700 – 17010with Norman Stevens & Bob Wallis
200015 - 25 Sep 200035USA: California / Oregon17020 – 17117with Jenny
200116 May - 1 Jun 200136Iran17120 – 17299with Norman Stevens
200120 Jun - 4 Jul 200137USA: California / Oregon17300 – 17469
200212 Jun - 3rd Jul 200238Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan17500 – 17686with Norman Stevens
200321 May - 7 Jun 200339Turkey17700 – 17984with Norman Stevens & A. Seisuns
?40?18000 – 18999
20054 - 21 Jun 200541Iran19000 – 19234with Norman Stevens
20051 - 12 Sept 200542Turkey19250 – 19405with Norman Stevens
200728 May - 13 Jun 200743Turkey19500 – 19613with Norman Stevens
201026 April - 5 May 201044Georgia19700 – 19780with Janis Ruksans and others
© 2024 Scottish Rock Garden Club | Privacy Policy | Contact Us
Scottish Charity No. SC000942