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.
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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 Jims 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.
Year
Dates
Trip
Destination (and weblink)
Field Numbers
Notes
1961
Working at Jack Drake's Inshriach Alpine Nursery in school and university vacations
Moved to Dorset to lay foundations of a specialist plant-nursery at Buckshaw Gardens, Dorset.
1966
March - Sept 1966
4
North Africa / Middle East:Sp / Mor / Alg / Lib / Leb / Iraq / Iran / Tun
00771 03317
Joined in Dorset by Eric Smith, propagator in the herbaceous & alpine department at Hilliers of Winchester. Main concerns Dionysia and Iris of Section Oncocyclus.
1967
Commenced business in partnership with Eric Smith trading as The Plantsmen, specialising in growing unusual herbaceous plants and alpines.
After 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.
