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1.
James L. Reveal. Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland,
College Park, MD 20742-5815; mailing address: 18625 Spring Canyon Road, Montrose,
CO 81401-7906. No Man is an Island, The Lives and Times of André Michaux.
2.
James E. McClellan III. Professor of History of Science,
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030. André Michaux, Botanical
Networks and French Colonial Power.
3.
Joel T. Fry. Curator of Historic Collections, Historic
Bartram's Garden, 54th Street & Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19143.
"Chez Bartram," Bartram-Michaux Connections.
4. Charlie
Williams. Manager, Carmel Branch, Public Library
of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, NC 28211. Explorer, Botanist,
Courier or Spy? Michaux and the Genet Affair of 1793.
5.
David H. Rembert, Jr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus,
Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
29208. Michaux's Travels and Discoveries in the Carolinas.
6.
James R. Cothran. Vice-President, Robert and Company,
96 Poplar St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30335-6001. Treasured Ornamentals of Southern
Gardens - Michaux's Lasting Legacy.
7.
Walter K. Taylor and Eliane M. Norman. Professor of Biology,
Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816 and
Professor Emerita, Department of Biology, Stetson University, DeLand, FL 32720.
André Michaux Visits Spanish East Florida, Spring 1788.
8.
Marie-Florence Lamaute. Executive Director, French
Association of Alberta - Centralta Region, 4727 50 Ave., C.P. 507, Legal, Alberta,
Canada T0G 1D0. André Michaux and His Journey in Canada in 1792 (according
to his manuscript journal).
9.
Laurence J. Dorr. Associate Curator, Botany Section, National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington,
DC 20013-7012. André Michaux in Madagascar.
10.
Dean de la Motte. Academic Dean and Associate Professor
of Literature, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC 28012. The Explorer and
the Exile: André Michaux, J.-J. Rousseau, and the Two Faces of the French Enlightenment.
11.
Gail Fishman. Author, 1305 Highland Drive, Tallahassee,
FL 32317. André Michaux: Understanding the Person.
12.
J. Lawrence Brasher. Denson N. Franklin Associate Professor
of Religion, Department of Religion, Birmingham Southern College, Birmingham,
AL 35208. Bedazzled and Bedeviled: The Religious Sensibilities of
André Michaux.
13. Bruce A. Sorrie. Longleaf Ecological,
3076 Niagara-Carthage Road, Whispering Pines, NC 28327. Current Status
of Rare Plants Bearing the Name Michaux.
14. Charlotte E. Lackey. 31 Leisure
Mountain Road, Asheville, NC 28804 (naturalist and Botanical Gardens of Asheville).
The Fragmented Habitat of Michaux's Beautiful Discovery: Shortia
galacifolia.
15. Robert Tompkins. Department
of Biology, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC 28012. An Ecological Study
of Magnolia macrophylla in Gaston County, North Carolina.
16. Ron M. Altmann. Catawba Lands
Conservancy, 105 W. Morehead St., Charlotte, NC 28202. Bigleaf Magnolia and
Local Land Conservation Efforts: Work of the Catawba Lands Conservancy.
17. Robert A. Browne, Jeffrey W.
Lavoie and Flora Ann Bynum. Environmental Studies Program and Department
of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109. Tree and Mammal
Species Richness in Piedmont North Carolina 1760-2001.
18. Daniel V. Hagan and George A.
Rogers. Department of Biology and Department of History, Georgia Southern University,
Statesboro, GA 30460-8042. Crotonopsis Michaux in the Southeastern
United States, pollinator puzzle: insect, wind, or self?
19. T. Lawrence Mellichamp. Department
of Biology, UNC-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223. Botanical Knowledge and Exploration
in Michaux's Time.
20. William S. Bryant. Biology Department,
Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, KY 41017. Botanical Explorations of
André Michaux in Kentucky: Some Early Accounts of Vegetation.
21. George A. Rogers and Vivian Rogers-Price.
History Department, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA
30460. The Influence of André Michaux on Stephen Elliott's A Sketch
of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia.
22. Gary Freeze. Department of History
and Classics, Catawba College, Salisbury, NC 28144. In the Steps of Michaux:
Mordecai E. Hyams and the Search for Shortia galacifolia,
1872-1879.
23. Mary Coker Joslin. 2431 West
Lake Drive, Raleigh, NC 27609 (retired, Saint Augustine's College, Raleigh).
A Thread Connecting Three Botanists whose Lives Touched Three Centuries of
American History.
24. Morgan A. McClure. Carolina
Ecological Services, 2411 Savannah Highway, Charleston, SC 29414. Charleston's
French Garden of the Republic.
25. Michael J. McLeod and Sheila
S. Reilly. Department of Biology, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC 28012.
Electrophoretic Analysis of Magnolia macrophylla Michaux
in Gaston County, North Carolina.
26. James F. Matthews. Department
of Biology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223. Rhus
michauxii Sargent - Is Mecklenburg County the Type Locality?
27. Kathleen L. Hornberger. Department
of Biology, Widener University, Chester, PA 19013. Sisyrinchium mucronatum
Michaux, an Easily Recognized Blue-eyed-grass.
28. Françoise Winieska. Free-lance
photographer of plants, gardens and nature; author. 63 Rue Dreyfus,
78120 Rambouillet, France. 18th Century Gardens in the Domains
of Versailles and Rambouillet.
 1.
James L. Reveal. Professor Emeritus, University
of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-5815; mailing address: 18625
Spring Canyon Road, Montrose, CO 81401-7906. No Man is an Island,
The Lives and Times of André Michaux.
Botanical explorers roamed temperate North America
colonies long before André Michaux came to the United States.
The efforts of these men and women accounted for thousands of
new species of plants described in the scientific literature from
the early 1500s until 1785 when Michaux arrived to begin his studies
that would ultimately result, in 1803, in a summary of the region’s
known flora. Most of the early efforts concentrated on trees and
shrubs of potential ornamental significance or plants of medicinal
importance. Introduction of temperate North American plants was
well underway by 1600, with a steady flow of natural objects going
to Western Europe throughout the seventeenth century. Although
broad, general interest in North American plants fell after 1700,
the efforts of just a few – John Clayton, John Bartram, Pehr
Kalm, Alexander Garden and Jane Colden –greatly shaped Carl
Linnaeus’ understanding of our flora from 1735 until Linnaeus’
death in 1778. Michaux did not enter into an unknown, unexplored
wilderness where everything was new and wondrous to even the most
casual of explorer. Rather, the new United States he encountered
required the skills of a knowledgeable explorer, one already familiar
with what was known, and with a broad understanding to realize
what yet was new. The focus of this presentation is to review
the effort of those early naturalists, and to present details
of the new methods Michaux brought to field botany: A broad knowledge
of plants, a genuine willingness to explore, and a desire (albeit
reluctant) to put what he knew into print.
 2.
James E. McClellan III. Professor of History
of Science, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
André Michaux, Botanical Networks and French Colonial Power.
We
celebrate André Michaux as a major figure in early-American botany,
but he was no less a seasoned naturalist sent to North America
as a botanical emissary of the French crown. This presentation
situates Michaux's American career in the larger institutional
and colonial context of contemporary French botany.
An extensive
set of botanical gardens that arose in Metropolitan France constitutes
the primary setting in which to consider Michaux and his work.
The Jardin du roi (1635) in Paris was France’s primary
institutional center for the study of botany and a major hub for
receiving and transshipping botanical specimens to and from the
four corners of the world. Complementing the Jardin du roi,
dozens of other royal, provincial, municipal, university, military,
and learned-society gardens spread across France in the eighteenth
century. Notable among these were the royal gardens at Rambouillet
and the Trianon at Versailles, the garden in Lorient operated
by the French East India Company, and the former university garden
in Nantes transformed into a special acclimatizing garden for
colonial products. The botanists at the Académie royale des
sciences rounded out the French botanical establishment, which
had further formal ties to the royal central government and notably
the French navy.
Michaux’s
expedition to the United States needs further to be set in the
context of the eighteenth-century French colonial empire, a little-known,
but economically powerful imperium that rivalled those of the
contemporary British or the Dutch. Botanical research was part
and parcel of French colonial expansion. Missionary naturalists
accompanied French colonial incursions in Canada, Louisiana, the
Caribbean, South America, Africa, India, and the Indian Ocean,
and in due course there arose a global system of French colonial
botanical gardens and government-sponsored programs of botanical
exchange. In the 1750s, the French colonial administrator and
adventurer, Pierre Poivre, famously raided the Dutch East Indies
and the Philippines and successfully established large-scale spice
cultivation in government gardens on the Indian-Ocean colonies
of Île de France and Île Bourbon. By the 1770s and 1780s, a comparatively
elaborate system of French royal botanical gardens had spread
to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and Cayenne in the New World, and, in
the 1780s, the French Ministry of the Navy and the Colonies launched
several extraordinary botanical shipments from the Indian Ocean
to the American colonies with the aim of spreading commodity production
of spices in the New World. By dint of one of these shipments,
thanks to the mutiny on the Bounty, the French became the
first to bring the breadfruit tree to the Caribbean.
A transformation of personnel accompanied this
shift from more purely scientific investigations emblematic of
French colonial botany earlier in the eighteenth century to a
characteristic form of economic botany later in the century; that
is to say, the missionary naturalists and government medical personnel
who botanized on their own or in conjunction with other functions
earlier in the century gave way to official royal botanists who
were state employees explicitly charged with botanical duties
and the fulfillment of government aims and programs. Michaux’s
mission to America has to be seen in this latter context. Had
the French Revolution not intervened, the American gardens he
founded might have been further swept up in the international
network of French colonial botany.
 3.
Joel T. Fry. Curator of Historic Collections,
Historic Bartram's Garden, 54th Street & Lindbergh Boulevard,
Philadelphia, PA 19143. "Chez Bartram,"
Bartram-Michaux Connections.
Andre Michaux's
North American journal records several visits: "chez Bartram"
between 1787-1794. These brief memos disguise an important intellectual
exchange. Michaux was visiting William Bartram and John Bartram,
Jr. at their garden in Kingsessing, in rural Philadelphia County.
The Bartram brothers were continuing the botanic garden that their
father, John Bartram, had begun in the 1730s.
André Michaux
may not have been impressed by his first visit to the Bartram
Garden in June 1786. He wrote "there is only one new and
interesting tree: the Franklinia..." Nevertheless, he
and his son paid repeated visits "chez Bartram"
over the next two decades.
There are
surprising parallels between the Bartram and Michaux families.
Both John Bartram and André Michaux were born into farming families
and rose to positions as internationally recognized botanists
and plant collectors by their own personal genius. Both saw their
royal patron toppled from power while serving as "King's
botanist." Both fathered talented sons--William Bartram and
François André Michaux continued their fathers' work, and published
significant works on North American botany. But perhaps most importantly,
the Bartrams and Michauxs were skilled plantsmen as well as scientific
botanists--they combined practical growing knowledge with scientific
curiosity.
Considering
the closely allied interests of the Michaux and Bartram families,
there is a surprisingly sparse record of personal connections,
but there is more than sufficient evidence of scientific cooperation,
plant exchanges, and perhaps even a little professional jealousy.
This paper will look at the broader implications
of the Bartram-Michaux connections and their impact on natural
science and garden history. Later scientists and historians have
at times confused and confounded the discoveries and introductions
of each family. But there is sufficient evidence to piece together
stories around a number of Bartram-Michaux plants. These will
include among others the North American natives: Cladrastis
kentuckea, Franklinia alatamaha, Jeffersonia diphylla,
Magnolia fraseri, Magnolia macrophylla, and Pinckneya
bracteata.
 4.
Charlie Williams. Manager, Carmel Branch,
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, Charlotte,
NC 28211. Explorer, Botanist, Courier or Spy? Michaux and the
Genet Affair of 1793.
Perhaps
the least understood episode of André Michaux’s career in
North America concerns his participation in the shadowy political
and diplomatic tangle known in U.S. History as the “Genet
Affair.” In 1793, the French Minister to the U.S., Edmund
Charles Genet, attempted to clandestinely raise an army of frontiersmen
under the leadership of General George Rogers Clark for the purpose
of driving the Spanish out of Louisiana. On Genet’s instructions,
Michaux acted as a secret courier between Genet and Clark. Genet’s
plot failed, but it has proven to be fertile ground for historians
in the subsequent two centuries.
Turner
(1898) examined the origins of the plot in detail. Ammon (1973)
has recently analyzed Genet’s mission. Malone (1962) and
O’Brien (1996) provide contrasting interpretations of U.S.
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson’s activities and motivations.
Michaux’s journal for this period is extant and was published
in English translation by Thwaites in 1904. Genet’s instructions
for Michaux, many letters, and other primary source documents
are found in the Report of the American Historical Association
for the Year 1896.
These sources and others will be used to examine
the background of the Genet Affair, establish a chronology of
events, and highlight Michaux’s role in the plot. It has
been suggested that Michaux might have used Genet’s mission
as the means to botanize in Kentucky; he was always first and
foremost a botanist. Evidence will be presented that Michaux embraced
Genet’s secret mission as a French patriot and made strenuous
efforts to successfully carry out his instructions.
 5.
David H. Rembert, Jr. Distinguished Professor
Emeritus, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South
Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. Michaux's Travels and Discoveries
in the Carolinas.
André Michaux arrived in South Carolina on September
21, 1786, after a voyage of 15 days from New York. For the next
ten years he used Charleston as his home base as he explored North
America and collected its botanical treasures. His activity in
the Carolinas was productive, but it only occupied 74 months of
the 129 months of his stay in North America and its environs.
This represents about 57% of his visit to North America from mid-November
1785 to mid-August 1796. Of the 74 months in the Carolinas, 60
months were spent in the Charleston area and Lowcountry. Therefore,
of the time spent in the Carolinas, only 19% was spent traveling
and collecting in the piedmont and mountains. And, if we relate
that to Michaux's total time in North America, only about 11%
of his time was spent traveling and collecting in the piedmont
and mountains of the Carolinas. What remains of plants that he
collected and described are to be found in Paris. It is noteworthy
to consider that he was preceded in his collection areas in the
Carolinas by Mark Catesby, John and William Bartram, Thomas Walter,
and John Fraser. Many of his discoveries were first published
by Linnaeus in several editions of his 1753 work, by Humphry Marshall
in his Arbustum Americanum (1785), Thomas Walter in Flora
Caroliniana (1788), by William Aiton in his Hortus Kewensis
(1789), and by William Bartram in his Travels (1791). In
spite of this, Michaux is today the authority for a substantial
number of genera and species native to the southeast US. He is
perhaps the finest field botanist ever to have collected in the
Carolinas.
 6.
James R. Cothran. Vice-President, Robert
and Company, 96 Poplar St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30335-6001. Treasured
Ornamentals of Southern Gardens - Michaux's Lasting Legacy.
Following
the establishment of a botanic garden in New Jersey, André Michaux
relocated to Charleston, South Carolina in 1786 where he developed
a plant nursery some ten miles outside the city. From this site,
Michaux shipped a great number of North American plants and seeds
to France and, in return, was permitted to import from the botanic
gardens of France numerous trees and shrubs that had been collected
from all parts of the world. Both from an historical and horticultural
point of view, Michaux's Charleston nursery was important in that
it was the location where many Old World and Asian plants first
arrived in North American. Included among these introductions
were the Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin), the Crape myrtle
(Lagerstroemia indica), the Tea olive (Osmanthus fragrans),
and the Camellia (Camellia japonica).
The primary objective of this presentation is
to examine and discuss the ornamentals credited as being introduced
into Charleston by Michaux and to examine their importance and
use in nineteenth century gardens. Primary research is employed
(when possible) to document specific plants credited to Michaux
and to emphasize how they remain as important ornamentals in southern
gardens today--both for contemporary use and as historic plants
for period gardens and landscapes.
  7.
Walter K. Taylor and Eliane M. Norman. Professor
of Biology, Department of Biology, University of Central Florida,
Orlando, FL 32816 and Professor Emerita, Department of Biology,
Stetson University, DeLand, FL 32720. André Michaux Visits
Spanish East Florida, Spring 1788.
André Michaux was named official botanist to
King Louis XVI of France in 1785. His mission to North America
was to collect plants, seeds, and other useful products of natural
history to restore France's forests and enrich the royal gardens
and parks. From his Journal we can retrace his steps, determine
what plants he observed and collected, and learn whom he met.
Michaux arrived in St. Augustine on Feb. 28, 1788, with his son,
Francois André, and a young Black, four years into the Second
Spanish Period of Florida history. After visiting Governor Vizente
Manuel de Zéspedes and other dignitaries, the Governor offered
Michaux assistance and gave him permission to travel in Spanish
East Florida. Shortly after his arrival, Michaux purchased a canoe,
provisions, and hired two oarsmen for a trip south along the east
coast of Florida. He left with his entourage on March 12 and did
not return until five weeks later, having traveled on horseback,
canoe, and on foot to today's Cape Canaveral. On April 27, Michaux
wrote in his Journal that 105 species of plants had been found
since March 1, his first day of collecting in Florida. Forty species
represented genera and species well known to the botanist, 36
were of genera he knew but the exact species were doubtful or
unknown, and 29 plants were not determined to genus or species
because they were not in flower. The exact number of species Michaux
found after April 27 is not recorded, a period that included the
St. Johns River exploration. After returning to St. Augustine,
the Michaux party left the city, on April 29, for the St. Johns
River. He canoed up the river to south of present-day Blue Spring,
Volusia County. Michaux wrote that the trip to Florida was fruitful
and yielded several new species of grasses, sedges, and tropical
species, as well as the endemic Florida rosemary, Ceratiola
ericoides Michx.
 8.
Marie-Florence Lamaute. Executive Director,
French Association of Alberta - Centralta Region, 4727 50
Ave., C.P. 507, Legal, Alberta, Canada T0G 1D0. André Michaux
and His Journey in Canada in 1792 (according to his manuscript
journal).
During
the reign of King Louis XVI, the ideology of expanding a scientific
expedition in North America at the end of the eighteenth century
was not a haphazardly made decision. The friendship between France
and the United States and their mutual interest for botanical
exchanges were relatively well established at that time. Meanwhile,
in 1785, a severe drought was largely devastating the flora and
the fauna in France and incited the French government to take
urgent action in order to remedy the situation.
The Count
of Angivillier, a notable scientist in charge of the Royal Garden
of Plants and a member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, was
conscious of the most pressing need to send a French Botanist
to the United States. André Michaux, who had recently successfully
completed a scientific expedition in Asia between 1781 and 1785,
was undoubtedly the appropriate candidate. Officially appointed
Botanist to the King on July 18, 1785, he was specifically instructed
to study distinct flora and fauna in North America such as forest
trees, herbaceous and exotic plants, wild ducks and quadrupeds.
The next step of his mission consisted of forwarding the diversity
of his collections to France as soon as possible.
However,
because of the French Revolution, the scientific mission he had
carefully built up in South Carolina over five years was abolished.
In spite of the lack of financial support from the French government
for his scientific project in North America, in 1792 he turned
the situation to his advantage and took the initiative to visit
the eastern regions of Canada.
During his expedition, he noted some historical
sites in his journal, and he particularly observed the geographical
distribution of the Canadian species and described the natural
beauty of the lakes and rivers in the northern territories. These
principal aspects of his journey in Canada are the concern of
this study.
 9.
Laurence J. Dorr. Associate Curator, Botany
Section, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution,
P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012. André Michaux in
Madagascar.
André Michaux sailed from Le Havre, France on
19 October 1800 with the expedition of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin.
This scientific expedition had been commissioned by Napoléon Bonaparte,
then First Consul, to explore the coast of New Holland. On 15
March 1801, the Géographe and the Naturaliste, the
two frigates comprising the expedition, anchored at Port Louis,
Ile de France. A little over a month later, when on 25 April the
expedition continued on to the Southern Lands, a number of sailors
and scientists stayed behind. Some deserted. Others claimed to
be too ill to continue. Michaux was among those who elected to
stay. Whether or not this was his original intent is unclear.
While at Ile de France, Michaux had contact with a number of naturalists
and explorers, including the physician Martin Moncamp who had
been his companion on an earlier trip to Persia. In June 1802,
Michaux sailed for Madagascar, landing near Tamatave. Louis Armand
Chapelier, a “voyageur-naturaliste” sent to Madagascar
by the government of the Convention, was already established near
that port, and Michaux evidently joined him in the valley of the
Ivondro River, west of Mahasoa, in a place known locally as Isatrano.
Michaux and Chapelier introduced useful and ornamental plants
to Madagascar, as well as explored the native vegetation for materials
that would be of interest to France. Michaux had the misfortune
to succumb to fever and he died in Madagascar on 11 October 1802.
There is evidence that his papers were conveyed to the Ile de
France, but they have since been lost. Herbarium specimens connected
with Michaux’s Madagascar sojourn exist now in Paris and
Geneva.
 10.
Dean de la Motte. Academic Dean and Associate
Professor of Literature, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC 28012.
The Explorer and the Exile: André Michaux, J.-J. Rousseau,
and the Two Faces of the French Enlightenment.
This paper
contrasts André Michaux, intrepid scientist-explorer, with Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, pre-Romantic exile. The focus is on the very different
ways each man viewed both his travels and his pursuit of botanical
knowledge, in order to illustrate two seemingly contradictory
strands of the French Enlightenment.
For Michaux,
the scientist and explorer, the compiling of botanical knowledge
adds to the encyclopedic project of the eighteenth-century, and
his explorations embody the restlessness of a uniquely European
ideology of progress. For Rousseau, on the other hand, botany
distracts him from the civilized world he seeks to flee and cheers
him in his exile. The "Cinquième Promenade" of Les
Rêveries du promeneur solitaire gives a famous description
of his arrival on the Island of Saint-Pierre where, he proudly
reports, he did not even bother to unpack his books. In the place
of books and papers, he fills his room with flowers and undertakes
to describe the flora of the island to the last blade of grass--
not in the interests of science, however, but for sheer pleasure
and distraction.
In conclusion, I will maintain that both Michaux
and Rousseau, despite appearances to the contrary, demonstrate
that the two sides of the French Enlightenment-- the objective,
scientific, teleological, and encyclopedic, as well as the subjective,
emotional, aesthetic, and random, are in fact inseparably intertwined.
In short, Michaux had much of Rousseau in him, in spite of his
work as a "pure scientist," and Rousseau could never
exorcise fully the rational philosophe from the poète
maudit he fancied himself in his later, increasingly paranoid,
years of exile. Botany as discourse is itself the subject matter
or lens through which I will study Michaux and Rousseau.
 11.
Gail Fishman. Author, 1305 Highland Drive,
Tallahassee, FL 32317. André Michaux: Understanding the
Person.
Taming the North American landscape began some
five centuries ago, though native people had been farming, hunting
game, and traversing rivers for thousands of years. As the centuries
progressed, explorers pushing into the new land's interior came
upon dozens of new plants and animals. People were excited by
the exotic findings. Among them were those who devoted their lives
to studying the inner workings of the natural world. Their goal
was to understand--not conquer--the land, people, plants and animals.
One of those adventuring explorers was André Michaux, botanist
to the King of France, Louis XVI. During his time in America,
he covered thousands of miles on horseback, foot, and boat and
met hundreds of people. He recorded his travels and discoveries
in several journals, writing in a mixture of French, English,
and Latin. Endless curiosity defined his commitment to science,
and his contributions are many. Although his journals have never
been translated and published in their entirety, a kind, generous,
caring personality emerges. Understanding Michaux, the person,
may encourage others to follow the same path, for many questions
about nature remain unanswered.
 12.
J. Lawrence Brasher. Denson N. Franklin
Associate Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, Birmingham
Southern College, Birmingham, AL 35208. Bedazzled and
Bedeviled: The Religious Sensibilities of André Michaux.
Biographies of André Michaux and his own work
depict him more as a man of action than of contemplation. A careful
reading of his writings, however, reveals not only a busy botanist
but also a sensitive observer of religions, not only an intrepid
explorer but also a man possessed of some fears. What worldview
or fundamental tenets underlay Michaux's complex character? This
paper examines Michaux's understanding of God and nature as evidenced
in his journals and letters. It offers the thesis that Michaux's
religion intriguingly combined Enlightenment Natural Religion
with popular Catholic piety.
13. Bruce A. Sorrie.
Longleaf Ecological, 3076 Niagara-Carthage Road, Whispering
Pines, NC 28327. Current Status of Rare Plants Bearing the
Name Michaux.
The name of André Michaux is associated with
742 vascular plant type specimens he collected in North America
during the 1790s. While most of these species are common and familiar
to most botanists, many are uncommon or rare. A selection of 20
of the rarest Michaux plants are included here, with notes on
present and past distribution, rarity status by state, general
population numbers and trends, taxonomic notes, habitat, and threats.
The 20 taxa represent 17 plant families. The species vary from
highly restricted endemics to widespread; two of the species are
officially designated as Federally Endangered, nine are Federal
Species of Concern. This small cross-section of plants stands
tribute to the amazing Michaux legacy of frontier exploration
and botanical discovery.
14. Charlotte E. Lackey.
31 Leisure Mountain Road, Asheville, NC 28804 (naturalist and
Botanical Gardens of Asheville). The Fragmented Habitat of
Michaux's Beautiful Discovery: Shortia galacifolia.
In 1787, André Michaux collected a single specimen
of Shortia galacifolia, in Oconee County, South Carolina,
which he placed, unnamed, in his Paris collection. After Asa Gray
found the Shortia specimen in the Paris herbarium, he and
other botanists searched for it in the Southern Appalachians.
Gray named it in 1839, before it was found on the Catawba River
banks in 1877. In 1886, Charles Sargent discovered Shortia
at the confluence of the Horsepasture and Toxaway rivers in Oconee
County, South Carolina, near where Michaux probably collected
his specimen. This area, the historical center of Shortia's
population, was flooded by Duke Power Co. in the early 1970s and
is now under Lakes Jocassee and Keowee. Less than 50% of the former
habitat survives; severely fragmented. The shoreline along Lake
Jocassee was inventoried for Shortia from a canoe. Over
a hundred scattered clusters were found, about 27% of which are
in immediate danger of erosion from wave action. Most remaining
Shortia are on the banks of streams feeding the lake. Elsewhere
there exist small disjunct populations of this beautiful, threatened
discovery of Michaux.
15. Robert Tompkins.
Department of Biology, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC 28012.
An Ecological Study of Magnolia macrophylla
in Gaston County, North Carolina.
Bigleaf Magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla
Michaux) has the largest simple leaf of any North American tree.
Its geographic range is the southeastern U.S. In North Carolina,
it is predominantly found in Gaston County, located in the western
Piedmont region of the state. André Michaux first described this
species from a site in Gaston County in 1789. This study includes
data from eight populations in Gaston County sampled during the
last three growing seasons. Initial data show a significant correlation
of M. macrophylla with mesic habitats. There is
a significant correlation between the presence of M. macrophylla
and Fagus grandifolia at these sites. There is also
evidence of recent disturbance at most of the study sites. It
appears that disturbance may be an important factor in the success
and/or establishment of M. macrophylla populations.
16. Ron M. Altmann.
Catawba Lands Conservancy, 105 W. Morehead St., Charlotte, NC
28202. Bigleaf Magnolia and Local Land Conservation Efforts:
Work of the Catawba Lands Conservancy.
The Catawba Lands Conservancy is a regional land
trust that works to acquire land that protects water quality,
natural habitat, and the wildlife resources of the Lower Catawba
River Basin. Operating in a region where natural landscapes are
rapidly being consumed by sprawl, the Conservancy has placed special
emphasis on preserving rare and unusual habitats and species,
typically identified through county-by-county Natural Heritage
Inventories. No plant better illustrates this conservation opportunity
than Gaston County's Magnolia macrophylla--Bigleaf Magnolia,
whose distinctive leaves and flowers are a symbol of the Conservancy's
work. This presentation will explain how the Conservancy protects
Bigleaf Magnolia sites and other natural areas while striving
to promote conservation awareness in the region.
17. Robert A. Browne,
Jeffrey W. Lavoie and Flora Ann Bynum. Environmental Studies
Program and Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem,
NC 27109. Tree and Mammal Species Richness in Piedmont North
Carolina 1760-2001.
The 40,000 acre Wachovia tract, which encompasses
modern day Forsyth County, NC and surrounding counties, was surveyed
by Christian Gottlieb Reuter between 1760-1764. The flora and
fauna lists were published in the "Records of the Moravians
in North Carolina" (Fries 1925). In addition, the flora of
Salem was surveyed by Samuel Kramsch in "Flora of Salem,
1789-1791." A final early account of the flora native to
the Wachovia tract was provided by the internationally recognized
botanist, Lewis David von Schweinitz in "Flora Salemitana"
(1821). Reuter's list is especially valuable because it is the
first record, by a trained expert, of the tree and mammal species
present during the European colonization of the Carolina piedmont,
predating well-known botanical experts such as André Michaux,
William Bartram and Asa Gray. The goal of our study is to publicize
the existence of these surveys and to compare species lost/gained
during the more than 200 year interval.
18. Daniel V. Hagan
and George A. Rogers. Department of Biology and Department of
History, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460-8042.
Crotonopsis Michaux in the Southeastern United
States, pollinator puzzle: insect, wind, or self?
The genus Crotonopsis was erected by André
Michaux based on specimens found in the southeast. Currently,
botanists often separate the genus into two species: linearis
and ellipticus. The differences are small. Stephen Elliott
commented that "the leaves...vary from linear-lanceolate
to ovate; the extremes appear sufficiently distinct, but intermediate
specimens seem to connect them." The Index Kewensis
equates all others, including "ellipticus," to
"linearis." Distribution in the southeast suggests
that "linearis" is southerly and near the coast
and that "ellipticus" is more often in piedmont
areas. A two-year study of insect populations of Altamaha Grit
rock outcrops in Coffee and Bulloch Counties, Georgia was conducted
to determine means of pollination in Crotonopsis. Relationships
between pollinators and plants are examined.
19. T. Lawrence Mellichamp.
Department of Biology, UNC-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223. Botanical
Knowledge and Exploration in Michaux's Time.
The beginning of the 19th century was a landmark
period in botanical history. It marked the end of an era of great
fundamental advances in botany in North America: Mark Catesby
had published his Natural History of Carolina, Linnaeus
had published his Species Plantarum, André Michaux had
found more new plants in the Carolinas than anyone before resulting
in the first Flora of North America, and Lewis and Clark
were preparing to explore for a Northwest Passage. The century
ahead was to be one of innovations and advances. In addition to
a survey of the state of botanical accomplishments up until 1803-06,
this paper will compare the significance of the discoveries of
Michaux with those of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
20. William S. Bryant.
Biology Department, Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, KY 41017.
Botanical Explorations of André Michaux in Kentucky: Some Early
Accounts of Vegetation.
In the short time that he spent in Kentucky during
1793-1796, André Michaux may have made visits to each of the state's
six geographic regions. The majority of his time, however, was
in the Bluegrass, Knobs, and Pennyroyal Regions where his landscape
descriptions and plant lists are the most thorough. Michaux was
probably acting more in the capacity of an agent for France than
as a botanist while he was in Kentucky. When Michaux's plant lists
are combined with comments and landscape descriptions of early
land agents, surveyors, adventurers, historians and cartographers,
a more detailed description of the vegetation of Kentucky around
the time of statehood (1792) is achieved.
21. George A. Rogers
and Vivian Rogers-Price. History Department, Georgia
Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460. The Influence of
André Michaux on Stephen Elliott's A Sketch of the
Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia.
Stephen Elliott (1771-1830) was born in Beaufort,
SC. He was a student at Yale College, 1787-91, when Michaux was
in the southeast. We have no indication that Michaux and Elliott
ever met, although the younger Michaux acted as Parisian book
agent for Elliott in the 1820s. Elliott was, however, acquainted
with Michaux's garden in Charleston. There are a great many references
to the Flora Boreali-Americana in A Sketch of the Botany
of South-Carolina and Georgia and when Elliott described the
genus Quercus, he often cited the illustrations in Histoire
des Chenes de l'Amerique. The illustrations will be discussed,
using slides to clarify details. Attention will be called to the
presence of a plant specimen in Elliott's herbarium that presumably
was collected by Michaux in "Louis." Textual similarities
and differences between Michaux's and Elliott's work will be discussed.
22. Gary Freeze. Department
of History and Classics, Catawba College, Salisbury, NC 28144.
In the Steps of Michaux: Mordecai E. Hyams and the Search for
Shortia galacifolia, 1872-1879.
This paper examines the career and contributions
of Mordecai E. Hyams to the pursuit of botany in the Southern
Appalachians. Hyams was one of the first academically trained
botanists in the south. He became the Gilded Age's expert on the
medicinal potential of the region's flora. His work with the Wallace
brothers' herbarium in Statesville, North Carolina, earned him
national fame, including exhibits at the Smithsonian, Harvard,
and the Philadelphia Centennial. The highlight of Hyam's career
came with the re-discovery of Shortia in the North Carolina
mountains. Experts since Michaux's visits, including Asa Gray,
had searched for the plant. This paper details Hyam's career and
argues that the Shortia episode was really just one of
several that established his professional credentials, as well
as advancing the study of the flora of western North Carolina.
23. Mary Coker Joslin.
2431 West Lake Drive, Raleigh, NC 27609 (retired, Saint Augustine's
College, Raleigh). A Thread Connecting Three Botanists whose
Lives Touched Three Centuries of American History.
In 2003, one year after the bicentennial of André
Michaux's death, we shall celebrate the centennial of William
Chambers Coker's founding of a campus garden at the University
of North Carolina, long called the "Coker Arboretum."
This paper will follow some fine threads which intertwine the
lives of André Michaux, Asa Gray and W. C. Coker, three botanists
who tramped the woods of Carolina and whose adventures touched
some part of the previous three centuries of American History.
This paper will note the influence of Michaux on Asa Gray and
the influence upon Coker's career of both of his predecessors.
Among other things, Coker located and described Michaux's garden
near Charleston, and he attempted to retrace Gray's route in search
of the Oconee-bells. As André Michaux, who first came to Carolina
in the late eighteenth-century, illumined the nineteenth century
life and career of Asa Gray, so did both Michaux and Gray, his
two honored predecessors, inform the twentieth-century career
of William Chambers Coker.
24. Morgan A. McClure.
Carolina Ecological Services, 2411 Savannah Highway, Charleston,
SC 29414. Charleston's French Garden of the Republic.
The year 1987 marked the bicentennial of André
Michaux coming to Charleston and establishing his second North
American garden. With impetus from the Charleston chapter of the
Society of American Foresters, an ongoing effort was begun to
locate, secure, and conserve the actual 3.0 hectare (7.5 acre)
garden site, historically known as the "French Garden"
until the late 1930s, located at Ten Mile Hill outside Charleston.
This involved extensive historical research into the site, contacts
with local and international scientific and preservation entities,
and the securing of an archeologist to conduct a preliminary excavation
of the site itself. Most notable of this work was the correction
of the long standing misinterpretation of the garden's exact locality.
This provided a substantial basis for securing the site's protection
in perpetuity, i.e., listing the site with the state's heritage
program, discovering applicable federal military regulations protecting
the site, and starting preliminary steps toward its nomination
to the National Register of Historic Places. The presentation
will focus on these three aspects and possible future opportunities
for the site's conservation.
25. Michael J. McLeod
and Sheila S. Reilly. Department of Biology, Belmont Abbey College,
Belmont, NC 28012. Electrophoretic Analysis of Magnolia
macrophylla Michaux in Gaston County, North Carolina.
Magnolia macrophylla Michaux (Magnoliaceae)
or Bigleaf Magnolia is known for its large showy leaves and flowers.
It has a regional distribution in the southeastern United States.
In North Carolina the range of M. macrophylla is
limited, with some exceptions, primarily to Gaston County in the
western Piedmont where André Michaux first discovered and named
the tree in 1789. Magnolia macrophylla is usually found
growing in acidic soil on north-facing valley slopes near creek
beds. Because populations are generally separated from each other,
although geographically clustered, the question of genetic variability
within and among populations is of interest. Previous reports
from allozyme studies indicate that low levels of genetic variation
occur within and among populations of M. macrophylla, and
some variation does occur at the species level. This study investigates
allozyme variation in several populations of M. macrophylla
in Gaston County. Preliminary data indicate that there is little
or no allozyme variation in the ten enzymes studied. The lack
of intrapopulation variation can be explained by several possibilities
including bottleneck effect, self-fertilization or outcrossing
with close relatives, or vegetative reproduction through the generation
of ramets from more mature trees.
26. James F. Matthews.
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte,
Charlotte, NC 28223. Rhus michauxii Sargent -
Is Mecklenburg County the Type Locality?
Tradition has been that Rhus michauxii
was described from a specimen collected by Michaux from Mecklenburg
County, North Carolina. This tradition has been derived from several
sources. Michaux's field notes for July 21, 1794 seem to note
an unidentified Rhus collected while visiting the home
of John Springs in southern Mecklenburg County. Flora Boreali-Americana
(1803) notes a new species of Rhus, R. pumilum,
from Mecklenburg County. However, the type specimen gives the
locality as Burke County. Uttall (1984) analyzed the type localities
of the Flora Boreali-Americana because of the concern that
the Flora, presumed to be anonymously authored by L. C.
M. Richard, may not have accurately reported the localities. Uttall
concluded that the text in the Flora was accurate, but
that the specimen had been mislabeled. Who is correct? Can we
be definitive in our decision? What is known about this species
subsequently? Why did Sargent rename this taxon in 1895, one hundred
years after its discovery?
27. Kathleen L. Hornberger.
Department of Biology, Widener University, Chester, PA 19013.
Sisyrinchium mucronatum Michaux, an Easily Recognized
Blue-eyed-grass.
Sisyrinchium mucronatum Michaux is one
of the species that André Michaux described and published in the
second volume of the Flora Boreali-Americana in 1803. It
is one of the simple-stemmed taxa with a single spathe at the
top of the scape. The outer spathe bract is more than twice the
length of the inner one; these bracts are usually purple in color,
which is different from most other species. Flower color ranges
from pale blue to bluish-violet (sometimes white) with a yellow
center. While the type location is Pennsylvania, this taxon occurs
throughout the northeast U.S., into the Middle Atlantic states
down to the Carolinas and Tennessee, up around the Great Lakes
into Canada, and into the Upper Midwest. This species is one of
37 in the genus currently recognized in the Flora of North
America (200-). It is also one of about 80 taxa in this New
World genus that is currently undergoing a phylogenetic investigation.
SPECIAL
PRESENTATION
 28. Françoise
Winieska. Free-lance photographer of plants,
gardens and nature; author. 63 Rue Dreyfus, 78120 Rambouillet,
France. 18th Century Gardens in the Domains of Versailles and
Rambouillet.
For France,
the 18th century was one of the richest for discoveries in the
field of natural sciences. Kings and wealthy estate owners financed
travels to faraway lands not yet explored. Louis XV directed all
travelers to foreign lands to bring back with them plants for
the King's domains. Plants from North America were shipped to
the royal gardens of Paris, Versailles and Rambouillet. At Trianon,
in the Park of Versailles, the king created a garden for these
exotic plants. As styles in gardening changed to a more natural
look under the influence of philosophers such as Rousseau, Louis
XVI's young queen, Marie-Antoinette, had her own gardener transform
the Petit Trianon into a garden that reflected the new
natural style. The plantings at Trianon mixed trees from Europe
with new species being sent from North America, all planted in
a calculated disorder as if growing there naturally.
At the very time the Queen was overseeing Trianon,
French botanist André Michaux was exploring the rough terrain
of North America, discovering new plants and sending seeds and
trees to France. He shipped plants and seeds to the king's gardens
in Paris, Versailles and to Rambouillet. One of André Michaux's
most famous shipments was that of seeds of bald cypress just before
the Revolution of 1789. Emperor Napoleon I ordered these seeds
planted in 1802. They grew to form a beautiful tree-lined avenue
on the edge of a small lake with a view of the castle. Among the
most spectacular results of André Michaux's shipment of North
American plants to France, these handsome trees lasted almost
two hundred years. On December 26, 1999, they were felled by the
most devastating hurricane to hit France.
|
Scholars
and other interested individuals from sixteen states, the District of
Columbia, Canada, and France gathered in the Haid Theater on the Campus
of Belmont Abbey College for the opening of the symposium on May 16,
2002. Belmont Abbey College Vice-President for Academic Affairs Dean
de la Motte first recognized Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey for
the invocation, then introduced President James Gearity who welcomed
attendees to the Belmont Abbey College campus. 
Michaux
Celebration Chairman Charlie Williams welcomed everyone on behalf of
the sponsoring consortium: Southern Appalachian Botanical Society, Daniel
Stowe Botanical Garden, Belmont Abbey College, Gaston Day School and
Mint Museum of Charlotte. Then he thanked the planning committee and
recognized several distinguished members of the audience including the
current president and six past presidents of the Southern Appalachian
Botanical Society. He then introduced Mike Baranski, Professor of Biology
at Catawba College and editor of the botanical journal CASTANEA, the
Program Chairman of the André Michaux International Symposium. 
After offering his own welcome and making a series of announcements,
Program Chairman Baranski then turned the podium over to Larry Mellichamp,
Professor of Biology at UNC-Charlotte who introduced the Plenary Speaker
James Reveal, Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Maryland.