The Sage of Biscayne Bay 75


barn if it were not too far away and the wind was favorable, but that
is about all."56 This is the prevailing tone of 'The Old Man,' who in
over eighty years of hard work and achievement never lost his joie
de vivre, his fundamental need to share his love of nature, his delight
in expressing it.
 Not everyone understood and appreciated this highly original
and far-ranging naturalist. In Out of Doors in Florida, Simpson
reports that on one trip to a Caribbean island, some of the local
people thought of him as "... a sort of semi-lunatic or as one lacking
in mentality.... No man in his right mind would leave his home and ...
wander around the woods and along the shores to pull leaves from
the trees, break off pieces of rock or crawl around picking up utterly
worthless shells."57 In a later chapter about a lower South Florida
trip, after a wearying exploration through jungle and swamp, Simpson
reiterated that:

 Wherever I went I had been taken for a tramp or a desperate
 man.... I tried to get a drink at a cistern, but a man in a very ugly
 voice told me to go away and leave the water alone. He refused
 to let me sleep on his floor, and didn't want to talk with me. I
 started away but came back and asked if he took me for a tramp,
 and he said I was either that or a bad man. I pulled out a gold
 watch and chain and asked if bad men and tramps carried such
 things, then I showed him a ten dollar bill and said, 'You still
 think I am a bad lot, do you?' His severe scowl changed into a
 smile and he said, '0 come in, I guess you are all right.'"

 His fellow scientists and naturalists, those who had read his books
and articles, thought he was much more than "all right." In 1923, the
77-year-old Simpson was the recipient of a high honor of the botani-
cal world: the Meyer Medal. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who was
present at the award ceremony, reported in The Miami Herald that
in the surroundings of his beautiful garden, Charles Torrey Simpson
received the award "in recognition of his life of devoted service to
tropical Florida and to the United States."58 Doctor Fairchild, an
earlier recipient of the medal, who made the presentation, stated that:

 The Meyer Medal is given to you in recognition of your distin-
 guished service in the field of foreign plant introduction. You