Asa Gray and His Quest for galacifolia

Charles F Jenkins

C. E Jenkins of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was both an excellent writer and an active horticulturist. He served as editor of The Farm journal for many years, and wrote several books on American history. In 1931, he founded the "Hemlock Arboretum" and published the well-known Hemlock Arboretum Bulletin until his death in 1951. In the Arnoldia article reprinted here, Jenkins, who was an important supporter of the Arnold Arboretum, tells the intriguing story of and C. S. Sargent searching for the botanical equivalent of the Holy Grail.

The word bewitched has antipodal meanings. Arbor. As the buildings were not ready, he was The first, sinister, fearsome, savoring of Salem granted a year’s leave of absence, a salary of trials and clouded minds; the second, $1500, and $5000 was placed at his disposal charmed, enchanted, captivated. In this to purchase books for the new University second sense Asa Gray was bewitched. For library. The main object of his trip, however, forty years, the greater part of his productive was to examine the original sources of Ameri- life, the memory of a fragmentary, dried, can flora as they existed in the principal her- incomplete specimen in a neglected herbar- baria of Europe. After a twenty-one-day voyage ium cabinet in France haunted him. The he landed in Liverpool and then began a year assurance of its existence as a living and crowded with rich cultural and educational the hope of its rediscovery were with him experiences. Everywhere he made friends constantly. A shy, evergreen groundcover with among the botanists and scientists and every- dainty, creamy-white in early spring; where he found in the old established herbaria cheerful, shiny, bright green in sum- specimens of American collected mer ; a winter coloring rich and rare-it well through the past century by a long list of deserved his lifelong devotion. When the botanists and travellers. search was ended and the visible assurance of the Herbarium in France its existence was placed in Gray’s hands, he Finding Specimen could well exclaim, as he did: "Now let me By the middle of March, Gray had reached sing my nunc dimittis." Paris where he remained nearly a month. Here On November 9, 1838, Gray sailed in the he worked over the collections of Andre packet ship Philadelphia for Europe. He had Michaux (1746-1802), that indefatigable col- received appointment to a professorship in the lector and botanist, who fifty years before had newly planned University of Michigan at Ann spent eleven years in the , send- ing home to France great quantities of botan- ical treasures. Among these in a cabinet of Volume 2(3, 4): 18-28, 1946. unidentified plants was a faded, incomplete specimen with the label: "Hautes montagnes On December 11 it froze hard and the air was clear and keen. I noted a chain of high mountains which de Carolinie An An genus ~~~~~ pyrnla spec extended trom west to east and where the frost was novuml" In his Andre carefully kept journal, little felt m places exposed to the sun. I gathered a Michaux not only tells of the finding of the Jumperus [repens] which I had not yet seen in the plant, but gives careful directions so that southern part of the United States but it must be future botanists might also locate it in the noted that I saw on these mountains several trees of the northern such as Betula Cornus Mountains of Carolina." regions mgra, "High altemifoha, Pmus strobus, Abies, Spruce, etc. We in as is Michaux’s Journal French, written, crossed a space of about three miles in the midst of not readily available, nor is there a translation . I came back to camp of the whole Journal for English readers. with my guide at the head of the Keowee and the of Professor Edith gathered a large quantity of the low woody plants Through courtesy I found the I of the French of Swarth- with the saw-toothed leaves that day Philips, Department arrived. I did not see it on other mountain. The of that any more College, the following translation Indians of the place told me that the leaves had a small portion relating to the finding of Shortia good taste when chewed and the odor was agreeable is here presented. It will give some idea of the when they were crushed, which I found to be the hardships borne by the botanist in his travels case. covers on four and his experiences disagree- [Michaux’s directions for finding Shortia] able winter days when he came upon the lit- The head of the Keowee is the junction of two tle which has botanists for one plant intrigued torrents of considerable size which flow m cascades hundred and fifty-four years. from the high mountains. This junction takes place in a small plam where there was once a Cherokee The roads became more difficult as we approached village. On descending from the junction of these the headwaters of the Keowee Kiwi [spelled by two torrents with the river to one’s left and the on the 8th of December, 1788.... Two Michaux] mountains which face north on the right, one finds miles before there I the arriving recognized Magno- at about 200-300 feet from the junction, a path lia montana which has been named M cordata or formed by the Indian hunters It leads to a brook aunculata Bartram. There was m this a lit- by place where one recognizes the site of an Indian village tle cabm inhabited a of Cherokee Indians. by family by the peach trees which still exist in the midst of We there to and I ran off to make some stopped camp the underbrush. Continuing on this path one soon I a new low investigations. gathered woody plant reaches the mountains and one finds this plant with saw-toothed leaves on the mountain creeping which covers the ground along with the Epigaea at a short distance from the river. [Michaux here repens. refers to Shortia.] The weather changed and it ramed all we were m the shelter of a night Although great In his for 8, 1839, Gray records Strobus pine our clothing and our covers were journal April the soaked About the middle of the night I went to the the find in the herbarium of Paris cabin of the Indians, which could scarcely hold the Museum which immediately aroused his family composed of eight persons, men and women. interest: There were besides six big dogs who added to the "But I have something better than all this filth of this apartment and to its inconveniences. The to tell I have discovered a new in fire was placed m the middle without any opening you. genus in the top of the cabin to let the smoke out; there Michaux’s herbarium-at the end, among were plenty of holes, however, to let the rain through plantae ignotae. It is from that great unknown the roof of this house. An Indian came to take my region, the high mountains of . place by the fire and offered me his bed which was We have the , with the persistent calyx a bear’s skm. But finally the ram having stopped and no a that I annoyed by the dogs which kept biting each other and style, but flowers, and guess continually to keep their place by the fire, I returned made about its affinities has been amply to the camp. borne out on examination by Decaisne and This place which is called the source of the myself. It is allied to , but is ’un tres dis- is so It the Keowee incorrectly indicated. is junction tinct genus/ having axillary one-flowered of two other rivers or large torrents which unite at and a that of a this place and which is known only as the forks of scapes (the large style the Keowee. Pyrola, long and declined). Indeed I hope it 7

of it until fourteen years after Dr. Short’s death. Apparently the latter never made the penalty pilgrimage to the mountains of Caro- lina in search of his namesake. His own large collection of dried plants passed to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, but his name is still to be found on the twenty-five thousand herbarium specimens he is said to have generously distributed to like-minded enthusiasts throughout the world. The Search of the Carolina Mountains Returning from his trip abroad, Gray reached home early in November, 1839, and immedi- ately plunged into the task of completing the Flora of North America. Shortia, however, was always in his mind. It was Michaux’s incom- plete and misleading label "Hautes montagnes C. E. Faxon’s drawing of , first pub- de Carolinie" on the herbarium specimen in hshed in Garden and m 1888. From the Paris that delayed for nearly forty years the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. satisfaction he was to have in holding in his hand a living plant. In anticipation of a will settle the riddle about the family of botanizing trip Dr. Gray now consulted Galax, and prove Richard to be right when he Michaux’s journal. But one must read care- says Ordo Ericarum. I claim the right of a dis- fully to find the reference, although in all the coverer to affix the name. So I say, as this is journal no species location is so faithfully a good North American genus and comes described as that of Shortia, but Gray unfor- from near Kentucky, it shall be christened tunately missed the significance of Michaux’s Shortia, to which we will stand as godfathers. directions, or did not realize that the passage So Shortia galacifolia, Torr. and Gr., it shall reproduced above appertained to the much be. I beg you to inform Dr. Short, and to say desired Shortia. With two friends, John Carey that we will lay upon him no greater penalty and James Constable, he started on his first than this necessary thing-that he make a pil- quest late in June, 1841. To the "High Moun- grimage to the mountains of Carolina this tains" they went, Roan, Iron, Grandfather, coming summer and procure the flowers." Black, and others, all over 5000 feet in height. Charles Wilkins Short (1794-1863) and Asa Michaux had also visited them. He recorded Gray never met. Their friendship was founded in his journal that on the 30th of August, on a voluminous correspondence and a 1794, standing on the summit of Grandfather, mutual respect for the botanical writings and which he thought was the highest peak in all attainments of each other. Both had been the Appalachians, he and his guide, John graduated in medicine and both were college Davenport, had chanted the Marseillaise and instructors in science. Short was Gray’s senior cried "Vive 1’Amerique et la Republique Fran- by sixteen years. He never saw the dainty lit- caise, Vive la Liberte!" tle plant so honorably named, nor the dried The Gray exploring party made its head- specimen in the Paris herbarium. This and the quarters in the little town of Jefferson, the few lines in Torrey and Gray’s Flora of North county seat of Ashe County, North Carolina. America were all that were definitely known None of the party knew that Shortia flowered 8

A map showmg the limited distribution of Shortia in the southern , as known in 1950. Since that time some new populations have been located, but others have been destroyed as a result of flooding associated with reservoir construction. Repnnted from Rhodora, volume 52, 1950. in late March or early April, nor did they obtained in the high mountains of Carolina. know at what altitude it grew. Reporting on The only specimen extant is among the ’Plan- his extended trip in a classical account which tae incognitae’ of the Michauxian herbarium, he wrote for Sir William J. Hooker, Gray says: in fruit only; and we were anxious to obtain "We were unsuccessful in our search for a flowering specimens, that we might complete remarkable undescribed plant with a habit of its history; as I have long wished to dedicate Pyrola and the foliage of Galax, which was the plant to Professor Short, of Kentucky, 9

whose attainments and eminent services to and at last the search of nearly forty years was North American are well known and at an end. Dr. Gray was triumphant. "No other appreciated both at home and abroad." In a botanist has the news," he hastened to write, footnote from this quoted passage is the first on October 21, 1878, to his close friend and published description of the genus Shortia fellow botanist William M. Canby, who was Torrey and Gray. to be the first to share with him the jubila- Two years passed and the position at Michi- tion over the rediscovery. In the period of forty gan having been abandoned, on April 30, 1842, years of waiting, many deserved honors had Gray was appointed to the Fisher Professor- come to him, including college degrees and ship of Natural History at Harvard College. memberships in fifty learned and cultural Again Shortia called him and for nearly three societies throughout the world. A few months months in 1843, this time with another previously he had been elected a member of friend, William S. Sullivant, he herborized in the Academie des Sciences of the Institut de the same general territory, the happy hunting France, one of the most coveted rewards to a ground of many distinguished botanists, both scientific man. Yet the discovery he was com- before and since. But again he was searching municating to his friend, "has given me," he in the wrong place and again was disap- said, "a hundred times the satisfaction that pointed. In neither trip did he come within the election to the Institut did." And then he many miles of where the little plant had been continues: "If you will come here I can show first discovered. you what will delight your eyes and cure you Dr. John Torrey was the first to suggest, as effectively of the skeptical spirit you used to early as 1852, that Shortia was probably an have about Shortia galacifolia. It is before me early spring plant and further that it might with corolla and all from North Carolina! disappear after flowering and perfecting its Think of that! My long faith rewarded at last." . "One should be pretty early on the Dr. Gray wrote to M. E. Hyams, October 27, ground to find it in flower," he wrote Dr. Short 1878, telling him how much immortality had who was anticipating a journey to the Caro- been lost for his son by not sending the speci- lina mountains in quest of it. John Carey men when it was found eighteen months about the same time was urging Dr. Short to before, in order that the description might ascertain the name and whereabouts of have been included in the edition of the Flora Michaux’s old guide, John Davenport, from which had gone to press in the meantime, but whom he might learn his track "in general if promising to make his name famous through not in particular." an article in "Silliman’s Journal pro tem" He also informed M. E. Hyams that he or Mr. at Last! Rediscovery Canby, or both, would be down the following It was in May, 1877, that seventeen-year-old May, call for the boy, and ask to be taken to George McQueen Hyams (1861-1932) of the spot. Mr. Hyams in replying, October 31, Statesville, N.C., found Shortia growing on tells of the finding of the plants: "We were the banks of the Catawba River near Marion, passing along the road and my attention was the county seat of McDowell County, N.C., called to an elevated hillside that I could not some seventy miles in a direct line from the ascend as being at the time rather exhausted, site of Michaux’s discovery. His father, M. E. being sixty years old, requested him [his son] Hyams (1819-1891), was an herbalist but did to ascend and bring whatever was in flower. not know the plant and eighteen months later I have forgotten the locality, but he is fully sent a specimen for identification to a friend, known to it, as he lived within two miles of Joseph W Congdon of East Greenwich, R.I. He the place for several years." in turn wrote Dr. Gray telling him he thought Now that a definite station for Shortia had he had Shortia. The latter wrote "Send it on" been located, Dr. Gray early in the spring of 10

1879 organized a real excursion to see it grow- there may have been 50 to 100 plants. As the ing in the wild. Mrs. Gray and her brother plantnl tmultiplies lrinl;Ag 1syby stolons~ !, c itit isic arlrahremarkableP with the latter’s wife and their two daughters that its area should be thus restricted and and his botanical friends, William M. Canby since in the struggle for life of two allied of Wilmington, Del., Dr. Charles S. Sargent plants the weaker ’must go,’ Dr. Gray sug- of Brookline, Mass., and J. H. Redfield of gested the possibility that its stronger cousin, Philadelphia, Penna., composed the party. The the Galax, had crowded out the Shortia. And four principals of the party arrived in States- here indeed, in what may be the last foothold ville, N.C., by train and were entertained by of the rarity, Galax appeared to be actually a Mr. Wallace, a leading citizen of the town. doing so. Yet the plants, though comparatively Redfield wrote a full account of the trip but few, were vigorous and healthy. Other stations only that portion relating to Shortia is may be looked for; but they must be hard to included here. He says: "The recent rediscov- find. When we consider the long search which ery of Shortia in North Carolina has created has been made for this plant, how all the much interest among botanists.... Searches mountain region of the Carolinas and Tennes- repeated in the course of many years had see has been examined by the sharp optics of proved fruitless, so that to the botanical frater- Buckley, Rugel, M. A. Curtis, Dr. Gray, Canby, nity and particularly to the author of the Le Roy and Ruger, the Vaseys, elder and young- genus the recovery was somewhat like that of er, Chickering and others, it is very certain a long lost child.... The object was not only that if there be other localities they must be to see Shortia but to find more of it if possi- ’few and far between.’ ... ble and to explore some portions of the moun- Finds tains which the oldest member of the party Dr. Sargent Shortia [Dr. Gray] had visited in 1841 and 1843.... Dr. Sargent was not satisfied with the meager "A visit to the root and herb warehouse results of the search for Shortia in 1879 and belonging to Wallace Brothers and under the again visited the Carolinas in the early charge of Mr. Hyams, furnished evidence that autumn of 1886 hunting for Magnolia cor- this branch of industry has reached an extent data, mentioned by Michaux. At Sapphire, and importance of which few are aware. The Transylvania County, N.C., he and Mr. Stiles, printed catalogue of indigenous plants, dealt who accompanied him, were met by Frank E. in by this house, enumerates about 630 spe- Boynton of Highlands. One evening after a cies.... These simples find a large market, botanizing trip Dr. Sargent produced a and both in this country and Europe, and the asked what it was. Mr. Boynton thought it orders come mainly from the wholesale drug- might be Galax but examining it more closely gists and the manufacturers of patent medi- said he did not know. Mr. Stiles jokingly said: cines. Think of a single order for fifteen tons "That is Shortia" and it turned out so to be. of Hepatica triloba! ... It was a coincidence that in the evening mail "Being now in McDowell County, the the following letter arrived from Dr. Gray: Shortia locality was visited under the guidance of Mr. George M. Hyams, the actual September 17, 1886 discoverer. In the secluded and well-protected My dear Sargent: well overshadowed Rhododendrons station, by Would I were with you. I can only say crown your- and was seen the little of Magnolias, colony self with glory by discovering a habitat-the origi- the plant, so long sought and by many so long nal habitat of Shortia which we will believe Michaux doubted. Its companions were Mitchella found near where Magnolia cordata came from m that first repens, Asarum virginicum and Galax expedition. aphylla. The space over which the plant Yours, ever, Asa extended was perhaps 10 feet by 30 and in all Gray 11

Unfortunately Dr. Sargent could not recall found it on December 8, 1788.... where he had found the Shortia leaf. He and As has been stated, up to the time of the his party had travelled all day over rough rediscovery of Shortia Dr. Gray had received mountain country searching for Magnolia cor- fifty honorary degrees and memberships in data. So the two Boynton brothers were sent learned societies. Twenty-one more were to back to locate the growing plants from which come to him before his death, which occurred the leaf had been plucked. Frank Boynton January 30, 1888. He was buried in Mount remembered that Dr. Sargent and he had Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass., where passed through Bear Camp, a small settlement a simple stone bearing a cross marks his last on Bear Camp Creek, a little stream flowing resting place. It may not be too late to suggest into the Horse Pasture River, which in turn that, with the soil properly prepared, there enters the Keowee. Here they found Shortia might be planted on his grave an ever green and gathered a small amount, and it was one and ever beautiful blanket of the little flower of these living plants which Dr. Sargent which he so loved and which he pronounced placed in Dr. Gray’s hands as coming from the "perhaps the most interesting plant in North Michaux land, "the headwaters of the Keo- America." wee;’ for it was at this place that Michaux first 12

A drawmg of the type tree of Metasequoia glyptostroboides growing at Modaoqi village. This illus- tration, provided through the courtesy of Dr. H H Hu, is from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum.