[Ed. III, 1992, p.1-6]

History of Botanical Exploration In The Beginning By Edmund Berkeley

One who had not fully investigated the subject Acer rubrum, Celtis occidentalis, Juglans nigra and might readily assume that would have been Platanus occidentalis. Another later collector of among the first states to publish a state flora. The Virginia plants, Dr. John Mitchell, was fascinated to first book concerned with American flora was find a few Virginia plants still growing in the Harriot's A Briefe and True Report of the New remnants of Tradescant's garden in 1749. He noted Found Land of Virginia, published in London in particularly a large Bald Cypress, Taxodium 1588. The first drawings of North American plants distichum. were those of John White from Roanoke Island. The Contributions to early knowledge of the first permanent settlement in the American colonies natural history of Virginia were made by two Church was in Virginia. There were early studies of flora in of clergymen. The Reverend John Clayton, the colony and the first colonial flora published was rector at Jamestown from 1684 to 1686, had been of Virginia. This early promise of a complete flora well trained as a scientist at Oxford University. He of the region has never materialized. Precisely why made extensive reports of his observations in it has not is difficult to evaluate. There have been a Virginia to Nehemiah Grew, Robert Boyle and the number of movements toward one, and today we Royal Society of London. He collected more than once again have hope. It would seem desirable to three hundred plants which he believed to be summarize here the history of previous floristic unknown in Europe which, unfortunately, were lost. studies in Virginia. His contemporary and friend, John Banister, made a Only thirty species of North American plants greater contribution to botanic knowledge. He, too, are known to have been successfully introduced into had been educated at Oxford, where he spent eleven Europe prior to 1600. Many of these were brought years, and where he served as chaplain of Magdalen back by Harriet's expedition of 1586, including College until 1678. He had made extensive studies Nicotiana rustica, Diospyros virginiana, and of at Oxford and he was thoroughly familiar Juniperus virginiana. Many in England and with the Virginia plants growing in the botanic elsewhere in Europe were eager to learn more about garden there, a number of which were Tradescant's . the wealth of new plants which evidently existed in He went to Virginia in 1678 with the expressed North America but the introduction of these plants intention of writing a "Natural History," and he took into Europe was surprisingly slow, and did not really with him herbarium specimens of the Virginia plants reach a large scale until the eighteenth century. One growing at Oxford. In Virginia, he settled at the of the more notable of the early plant collectors was Falls of the James, under the patronage of William the younger John Tradescant, who made several Byrd I. For fourteen years he collected in various collecting expeditions to Virginia between 1632 and parts of Virginia and sent back reports, seeds, 1654. He collected largely along the York River. drawings and plants to his botanic friends at Oxford. The elder John Tradescant, a native of Holland, had Many of his drawings of Virginia plants appeared in travelled widely in Europe, Greece and Egypt before Plukenet's Phytographia, and several hundred he settled in London in the 1620's and became descriptions of new species were included in John gardener to Charles 1. Here he established one of the Ray's Historia Plantarum. In 1692, he went with first botanic gardens in England in that part of Byrd on an expedition to the Roanoke River and was London known as South Lambeth. The younger accidentally shot and killed by a member of Byrd's Tradescant brought back perhaps a hundred species scouting party. He had never published his of Virginia plants to his father's garden including manuscripts of a Natural History. In 1712, came to Virginia from and communication between them seemed to break England to visit his sister Elizabeth, wife of Dr. down. Clayton was still eager but Gronovius lost William Cocke, and remained for about seven years, some of his enthusiasm. Eventually, Clayton gave up during which time he made extensive observations hope of action by Gronovius and prepared an on the flora and fauna. He left little written record of entirely new flora of his own. He sent the manuscript them except that many were included in his later to friends in England for publication in 1758. Natural History of Carolina, based primarily on Botanists there were enthusiastic and acclaimed it as years which he spent in that colony. "greatly enlarged and improved," referring to it as In 1720, another John Clayton with a keen Clayton's "Flora Virginiana." Plant descriptions interest in botany became Clerk of Court for would be given in both Latin and English and it Gloucester County, Virginia. He was a distant would be illustrated by George Ehret, the leading kinsman of the Reverend John Clayton, and was the botanical illustrator of the day. Perhaps their plans son of John Clayton, Attorney General of Virginia. became too grandiose. In any event, several years The exact year of his coming to Virginia is not passed without it being published. In 1762 a new known but is believed to have been about 1715. He second edition of the original Flora Virginica was was grandson of Sir John Clayton, one of the published at Leiden by Laurens Theodore original Fellows of the Royal Society of London, Gronovius, son of John Frederick. It did not contain and he had been well educated in England, although many of the additions known to have been included details of his education are not known. In the early by Clayton in his manuscript. Clayton's was never 1730's he began sending plant specimens to Mark published and the manuscript has been lost, and we Catesby in London. His father had known Catesby in are the poorer for it. Only an outline of the flora Virginia and it is probable that the son had also. remains in the Ellis papers in the library of the Catesby apparently introduced him to a Linnean Society of London. correspondence with Dr. John Frederick Gronovius, In late 1731 or early 1732, a young Virginia - of Leiden, Holland. As early as 1735, and perhaps born doctor, John Mitchell, returned from some earlier, Clayton was sending plant specimens to years of study at the University of Edinburgh, to his Gronovius for his assistance in identification. At home in Lancaster County. He had been born there Leiden these were eagerly studied, not only by in 1711, numerous accounts to the contrary notwith- Gronovius, an ardent botanist, but also by his young standing. At Edinburgh he had studied botany under friend recently arrived from Sweden, Carolus Dr. Charles Alston and he was eager to investigate Linnaeus. The latter so impressed Gronovius, that he the flora of Tidewater Virginia. He was soon and another friend, Isaac Lawson, volunteered to sending plants to Alston, to Dr. John Jacob finance the publication of Linnaeus's Systema Dillenius, Botany Professor at Oxford, and others. He established his medical practice at Urbanna, and Naturae, which first presented the "sexual system" began building a hortus siccus and physic garden. of classification of Linnaeus to the botanic world. In He made the acquaintance of John Clayton and gratitude for all of the help which Gronovius and exchanged specimens with him. The more he Linnaeus had given him, Clayton prepared and sent attempted to use existing systems of classification, to Gronovius, for his library, “A Catalogue of Plants, the more fault he found with them and eventually he Fruits and Trees Native to Virginia." Gronovius was proposed one of his own. It was eventually so pleased with the Catalogue that he proceeded to published at Nuremberg, Germany, in 1748, and edit and publish it as the Flora Virginica, in 1739, seems to have attracted little attention, although without asking Clayton's permission to do so. He did recently some have acclaimed it to have been far give Clayton full credit for his work in the ahead of its time. He also wrote a treatise on introduction, which later writers have frequently medicinal plants of Virginia, which was never failed to do. He also proposed to Clayton that this published. He might well have undertaken a flora of should merely be Part I of the Flora and that they Virginia eventually had not bad health persuaded should jointly prepare a second part. This they did him to leave Virginia for England in 1746. and Part II appeared in 1743. They then set about There is remarkably little record of botanic producing a third part but it progressed very slowly, work in Virginia for some years following the death of Clayton in 1773. The great Philadelphia botanist, everything in the 1762 edition and add a great deal John Bartram, was a contemporary of Clayton and of new material. Like a number of things which visited him on collecting trips to Virginia where he Barton started, this was never completed. Only explored the Valley of Virginia as well as the seventy-four pages were published. Tidewater area. In 1792, James Greenway of A number of botanists collected plants in Dinwiddie County, compiled a flora of Virginia but Virginia during the nineteenth century, notably John it was never published. In 1812, Dr. Benjamin Smith Lyon during the early years and Asa Gray in the Barton, a professor at the University of later period. None of them appears to have Pennsylvania, undertook to revise and expand contemplated a flora of the state. Clayton's Flora Virginica. He planned to include

The Middle Decades By Alton Harvill

Carrying Dr. Berkeley's story further, the Adiantum capillus-veneris collected in Virginia. nineteenth century in Virginia was largely an era of Originally from New York, Allen Hiram sporadic collecting by out-of-state botanists, whose Curtiss' father bought a farm 24 miles west of specimens, in most cases, ended in northern Lynchburg, in Bedford County, shortly after the herbaria. Frederick Pursh, a native of Saxony, Civil War. Here the son collected plants from 1868 collected extensively here in 1806. His headquarters to 1872, and hundreds of these specimens are now in for some time were in Southampton County with Dr. the Gray Herbarium and the Smithsonian Institution. Edwin Gray, whose plantation covered much of These are still the largest collections from Bedford Southampton County in the late eighteenth and early County, and formed the basis for our knowledge of nineteenth centuries. Pursh discovered many rare one of our larger counties until Ruskin S. Freer and local species, and some of them have never been started working on the central Blue Ridge counties seen again in the region. His Virginia plants are in the 1930s. included in Flora Americae Septentrionalis, a classic Early years of the twentieth century were still two-volume work which he published in 1814. marked by only sporadic botanical work in Virginia, In 1858 William M. Canby explored mountain but soon resident botanists would awaken, and the areas of southwestern Virginia, especially along contributions of visitors would become much more New River and Salt Pond Mountain. At Eggleston effective and valuable. Springs in Giles County, he discovered Paxistima After more than a decade of work in the shale canbyi, named in his honor by Asa Gray. Canby was areas of western Virginia, Edward S. Steele first in Pursh's sand country near Franklin in 1867, and used the term shale barrens for this unique type of back in Virginia again in 1868. vegetation in 1911. Specimens of the many Howard Shriver, M. A., was born near important discoveries made by him and Mrs. Steele Baltimore in 1824, moving to Wytheville about in western Virginia are now preserved in the 1858 where he operated a private school and tutored Smithsonian Institution. pupils until at least 1885. Although interested in all In 1920 and 1921, Earl J. Grimes, a professor phases of natural history, he was particularly at the College of William and Mary, with Mrs. devoted to botany and built up a private herbarium Grimes, botanized the entire Peninsula of Virginia, which was large for its day. Shriver became the the first notable collections from the area since John authority on the flora of Wythe County and vicinity. Clayton's time. This work was published as the Many of his specimens are preserved in northern Flora of the Peninsula of Virginia by Eileen W. herbaria, about 200 in the Smithsonian Institution, a Erlanson, the former Mrs. Grimes, in 1924, but their like number in the Gray Herbarium, but the bulk of specimens went to northern herbaria. While doing his collections are in the Philadelphia Academy of this work, Grimes came to recognize the ecological Natural Sciences. His is still our only specimen of significance of marl areas for the persistence of many rare and local species in the region. Also in the About the turn of the century, Gerrit S. 20s, Edgar T. Wherry started working in Virginia on Miller, Jr. collected extensively in Virginia, mostly a number of speciality groups, especially ferns, in Warren County, and hundreds of his specimens orchids, and the Polemoniaceae. Through the years are in the Smithsonian Institution, where he was since then, he has extended his scope to include later, and for many years, curator of the Division of shale-barren and flat-rock plants, and many other Mammals. novelties. Carrying these studies on over a long span By assembling an excellent reference her- of years, his work has greatly augmented our barium, of his own and other's collections, John M. knowledge of many phases of the flora and Fogg left an important legacy to the state while vegetatioin of the state. teaching at the Mt. Lake Biological Station in the And about this time Paul Merriman was late 30s. working in the Richmond area, an effort which As an intrepid plant physiologist, but with a would culminate in the Flora of Richmond and yen for field work, H. A. Allard made collections in Vicinity in 1930, a handbook without trees, grasses, Virginia in the 1930s and 1940s which would add or sedges, but nicely illustrated by Mary S. Lynn. immensely to our knowledge. His concentrated With his appointment to the staff of the assault on the vegetation and floristics of Bull Run Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1913, A. B. Massey Mountain and many other areas of northern Virginia started a long period of service to the state and its has not only added greatly to our understanding of botanical endowments. There were no collections of our natural heritage, but has been an inspiration to plants of consequence in the state, and Massey all other workers. through the years built up the largest collection of Also beginning in the 1930s, Lena Artz Virginia specimens outside northern herbaria. By directed her work toward the flora of the this work and by his many papers on various groups Massanuttens, plants of the shale barrens, bogs, and of Virginia species, he held the faith through a long other distinctive habitats. Her many papers are a period of virtual botanical desuetude. His Virginia botanical record of another fascinating region in the Flora, published in 1961, stimulated much botanical Old Dominion. activity because of its county distribution of species As a high-school boy in the 1930s, Lloyd G. C. over the entire state. Carr began making excursions on foot to peculiar In 1890, a year after the founding of the New ponds and swales in his native Augusta County, to York Botanical Garden where he was its first collect the great numbers of odd plants in and director, Nathaniel L. Britton, with Mrs. Britton, around these wet lands. Information about many of Addison Brown, Anna Vail and others collected in the ponds came from his school mates. These are the southwestern Virginia. Most of their specimens, of famous sinkhole ponds in the Great Valley, which course, are at the Garden. A year later, John K. are partially filled with acid rocks from the Blue Small, with Anna Vail and the Brittons, made large Ridge, where peat accumulations are suitable for collections in southwestern Virginia, especially pollen analysis, and whose acid waters have Smyth County, and their results were published in provided an environment for the persistence of many 1892. Coastal Plain species. Carr's collections from this Amos Arthur Heller, a native of Pennsylvania, area, and from southwestern Virginia, are mostly in travelled and collected in Virginia in 1893, the Gray Herbarium and some state herbaria. accumulating a large number of specimens. He Over a period of many years, Robert R. Tatnall followed Pursh and Canby in the pine-barren sands collected in Delaware and on down the Eastern south of Franklin. These stretches of deep sand Shore and brought together herbarium records of this along the Blackwater River, where so many rare region. Although he did not spend much of his time species grow, would be again rediscovered more on the Virginia end, his Flora of Delaware and the than forty years later by M. L. Fernald. Eastern Shore, published in 1946, is still the basic Thomas H. Kearney started field work in botanical reference for Virginia's Eastern Shore. southeastern Virginia in 1898, which would be the During the fall of 1940, and spring and basis for his Report on a Botanical Survey of the summer of 1941, Frank E. Egler investigated the Dismal Swamp Region, a pioneer and now classic flora and vegetation of Seashore State Park on Cape vegetational study of a large area which was Henry, making extensive collections. A published in 1901 and is still useful today. mimeographed publication of 1942, on the ecology scrap of information from any source available, he of the ferns and flowering plants of this attractive and his co-workers pushed on week after week, to area, was republished, under the direction of E. discover most of the unusual and frequently very Spencer Wise, by the Princess Ann High School in local habitats which harbor so many of Virginia's 1962. rare and local species, this in a broad area from the By concentrating intensive field and herbarium coast to Brunswick County inland, but mostly south studies on one particular county, Carroll Wood's of the James River. work on Roanoke County, published in 1944, All of this vast accumulation, not only of became the first of its type for Virginia. botanical and other scientific data, but valuable In order to make Gray's Manual more observations on the folk ways of the people and the authentic in its extreme southeastern range, M. L. state of the country, was published year after year to Fernald and Ludlow Griscom of Harvard explored number twelve Virginia papers totaling more than the Virginia Beach region for three days back in 1200 pages with some 267 plates. The last of these, 1933. Fernald was then about 60 years old, but this on additions to and subtractions from the flora, was was the beginning of 14 field seasons which he and published in 1947. his colleagues, most often Bayard Long, were to Some of Fernald's most famous plant locales work in Virginia. Their publications are of have already been destroyed, and were it not for inestimable importance for taxonomic, ecological, those fourteen years of persisting and masterful field and environmental studies in Virginia to this day. work, we would have never known of many of Fernald reached the state at just the right time, Virginia's most ecologically and phytogeo- when it was being opened to efficient travel by a graphically significant habitats, with their many rare good road system, yet, before the vast destruction and fastidious species. which would come in the wake of the developing heavy earth-destroying equipment. Using every

Up to Date By Donna M.E. Ware

Between the years of publication of the first edition two. Many of these were from the northern edition of the Atlas of the Virginia Flora, two parts Virginia Blue Ridge. Charles E. Stevens continues in 1977 and 1981, and the second edition in 1986, collecting widely throughout the state. He has also more than 50 species new for the state were added added a staggering number of highly significant and mapped. In addition, 220 waifs and taxa of records while working through massive doubtful persistence, along with eight hybrids, were collections from previous years. Douglas Ogle's also recorded in a list following the maps. The third field work is still turning up numerous edition includes maps for 36 species not recorded in exceedingly rare and unusual species in the far the previous editions and also many additional southwestern part of the state. Thomas F. waifs. Wieboldt continues highly productive exploration During the years since the publication of the in the mountains of southwestern Virginia and first edition of the Atlas, the number of active other regions of the state. And Robert Simpson botanists and level of field activity in the state have continues to contribute collections from many steadily increased. Thanks to the bounty of areas of Virginia. Another fertile source of records information generated by this activity, the maps in is the floristic inventory of the James River Gorge, edition three represent another significant increase by Gwynn Ramsey and associates, which has in our knowledge of plant distribution in Virginia. resulted in hundreds of county records. Several workers have been particularly closely Philip Sheridan and Mark Strong are con- involved with the Atlas work for many years. Ted R. tinuing to document distributions of wetland Bradley continues to delve into the flora of most species. Donna M. E. Ware's recent field work has counties in northern Virginia and also that of the been centered in James City, York and Louisa Northern Neck and Eastern Shore. Field work counties. Robert Wright is focusing on various being done by Gary Fleming has added over 1,000 piedmont and coastal plain counties. Additional new county records since the publication of contributions of specimens have come from the following: Co.; Gregory Plunkett, Isle of Wight Co.; Mark Western Virginia - Stanley Bentley, south- Simmons, King George Co.; Elizabeth Train, western Virginia; Doug Coleman, Central Blue Middlesex Co., Katherine Tucker, Prince William Ridge; Richard Davis, Scott Co.; Greg Frank, Co.; and Anna Vascott, King and Queen Co. various regions; Donna Hansen, Greene Co.; Southeastern Virginia - Rebecca Bray, Jacob Kegey, mountain counties; Randell Bryon Carmean, Gisela Grimm, David Knepper, Kendrick, Blue Ridge; Conley McMullen, Rock- Lytton Mussleman, Rebecca White; and Joan ingham Co.: Charles Leys, James River Gorge; Wright (Seashore State Park). Kenneth Markley, Breaks Interstate Park; Dorothy Eastern Shore - Steven Hill, E. E. Lamont Music, Tazewell Co.: Charles Owens, Washington and Richard Statler, Assateague Is.; and Larry Co.; Terry Sharik, Craig and Buck-ingham Klotz, Wallops Is. and Wallops mainland. counties; Mary Linda Smyth, Mont-gomery Co. Heritage Group - The period between edi- and elsewhere; Terry Theodose, Highland Co.; tions two and three of the Atlas also coincid- ed and Frank Watson, Nelson Co. with the establishment of the Virginia Divi- sion Eastern Virginia - For more than fifteen of Natural Heritage. Important distribu- tional years Spencer Wise worked with us through each information has been contributed to this new season from the northern border of Accomack edition by Garrie Rouse, Christopher Ludwig, County on the Eastern Shore to the southern Christopher Clampitt, Tom Rawinski, Allen border of Virginia south of False Cape, including Belden, and Nancy van Alstine. the barrier islands. Spencer provided the logistics, Other contributors of distributional informa- including boats and trucks, for these operations, tion include Dorothy Allard, Dorothy Bliss, Steve and without his dedication our coverage of that Croy, Louis Cullipher, Allison Cusick, Bruce vast area would have been nowhere near the Davenport, Damon Doumlele, Barry Ensley, picture we have in this edition. Also Patrick Susan Grimshaw, Brian T. Hazlett, John Hummer, Baldwin, Hampton and Newport News; Virginia Cliff Hupp, Robert B. McCartney, Kent Crouch, Williamsburg; James Greaves, Gloucester Minichiello, Marcia Minichiello, Aubrey Neas, Co.; Gustav Hall, Isle of Wight, King and Queen Roland Monette, Dan Pittillo, Walter Priest, Steve and Middlesex counties; John Hayden, Melanie Rottenborn, Bill Scholl, Harry Smith (Hanover Haskins and James Gardner, Richmond battle and Henry counties); Steve Stevenson, and Alan fields; Richard Keyser, Prince William Co.; Bruce Weakley (Henry and Patrick counties). King, Hanover Co.; Gretchen North, Middlesex