Cymopterus ripley R. Barnebytainous regions of Spain. ... It is the selfindulgenceof one who has been exiled far toolong —• almost a decade, in fact — from theleast understood and most arrogantly beautifulcountry in Europe.Yet in spite of more than a dozen visits tothe Peninsula, some lasting several months,there are still many sierras that I have nevereven glimpsed, or that remain in the mind'seye merely as intriguing contours seen inpassing from the train or bus, shapes of momentousindigo lying on horizons as cold andvirtuous as the seas's; the marble gorges ofYunquera, for instance, or dank Riopar withits caves and cataracts poised high above thewhite dust of Murcia. . . .The whole essay is a magnificentrecherche du temps perdu, erudite andbotanically precise but most fancifullystructured.From there on the pages of the AGS<strong>Bulletin</strong> record accounts of the Ripley-Barneby expeditions into the flora ofthe United States and adjacent Mexico.They had taken up residence in BeverlyHills, California in 1936. But we shallsee later that the beauty of the Mediterraneanworld still haunted them.Here in America was a new world,wide and inviting. Over the years thesetwo explorers chased down many aplant recorded only once years beforein diverse botanical publications. Andthey discovered a number of utterlynew and unknown ones. There are fivespecies in four different genera named"ripleyi" and several "barnebyana."'At the time of the early <strong>American</strong>explorations, the gardens and alpinehouses at the Spinney in Sussex werestill there to receive collected plants,though during the war they did receivesome damage from bombing. The receptionand care of the new plants fromAmerica, plus the management of theestablished collection under increasinglytrying circumstances was entrustedto the care of a series of gardenersunder the guidance of the elderW. E. Th. Ingwersen. Mr. Ingwersen,noted nurseryman and himself a plantexplorer, was a devoted admirer ofRipley's as is evident from the series of182
letters dispatched by him to Americarecounting the affairs at Horam. I havebeen privileged to read these Ingwersenletters and was told I might throw themaway after reading but they are toofascinating for such a fate. I have, therefore,sent them back to the present generationof Ingwersens for possible biographicaluse.Eventually it fell to the elder Ingwersen'slot to arrange for an auctionof the plant collection at the Spinney.This sale was carried out November12, 1951. I have a copy of the salecatalog with notes of prices given foreach lot, an amazing document. I canvisualize the formidable gathering ofnotable horticulturists of the Alpine<strong>Garden</strong> <strong>Society</strong> and others cagily biddingagainst one another. Prices rangefrom five shillings for Lot 108 containingBupleurum plantagineum, Sedumtuberosum and three others, allthe way to seven pounds, one and sixfor Lot 96 that included Lepidium nanum.,Salvia vivacea, Cyclamen creticumand three others.During their prolonged absences fromEngland and until Ripley's finaldisposal of the Spinney at Horam, thetwo friends made numerous botanicaltrips in the United States, primarilyin the southwest. They were frequentlybased in California and deposited theirherbarium specimens at the CaliforniaAcademy of Sciences there or at theNew York Botanical <strong>Garden</strong>. Ripley'selegant accounts of these explorations,with magnificent pictures by Barnebyare to be found in ten articles in theAlpine <strong>Garden</strong> <strong>Society</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> from1940 through 1948.There are such titles as "TheLimestone Areas of Southern Nevadaand Death Valley", "Rarities ofWestern <strong>North</strong> America", "Utah in theSpring", "A Trip Through Oregon".These are all wonderful reading, fullof plants and their discovery. I can'tresist giving you just a brief sample.On the morning of June the 1st, 1945, Iawoke in a small, battered bedroom of theonly hotel in Mountain Home, Idaho, with afeeling of exasperation and one of those moderatehangovers half-way between a simpleheadache and the condition, described so accuratelyby S. J. Perelman, in which "partiesunknown seem to have removed one's corneasduring the night, varnished and replacedthem, and fitted one with a curious steel helmetseveral sizes too small." I had spent theprevious evening pounding a piano in a barfor the amusement of the local cowboys, andthese innocent souls, inflamed no doubt bythe novelty of my urban tempo after a lifetimeof "Home on the Range" and similarforthright compositions, had kept me well suppliedwith refreshments.But sleep, when I finally dragged myself tomy pallet, refused to come: all night long thecowboys tramped up and down the creakingstairs of the hotel or shouted happily to eachother in the corridors, while the less virileretired to their rooms to pass out, breathingpeacefully with the quiet, regular rhythm ofpneumatic drills. Shortly after dawn I fell intoa fitful doze, and at six-thirty, wide awakeand pondering on the world and its follies, Igot up and dressed.A little later a knock sounded on the door.It was my friend Rupert Barneby, lookingenviably crisp, with a stack of drying papersunder one arm and our camera and tripodunder the other. Together we descended tothe hotel cafe, where I forced my teeth tognash sullenly for a few minutes on somethingyellow accompanied by two slices of salt pork,and gulped down a large cup of coffee inpreparation for the day's collecting. By seveno'clock, armed with a thermos and some sandwicheswrapped in cellophane, we were in thecar and off. . . .Near the end of these years of <strong>American</strong>botanical explorations recorded inthe AGS <strong>Bulletin</strong> and in some <strong>American</strong>scientific journals, the two explorerssettled permanently in the United States,first at Wappingers <strong>Fall</strong>s, N.Y. There,on extensive outcrops of Hudson Valleyshales, they devised a large rock gardenand erected an alpine house where theygrew a continuing introduction of plantsfrom their annual pilgrimages acrossthe country and into Mexico. FromWappinger's <strong>Fall</strong>s came a few Ripley183
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