I am very interested in the introduced plants that were brought over
by various settlers and ethnic groups, and are still found in certain
specific areas of Virginia. A long time ago I read an article about
this. As I recall, there was a type of thistle from Canada that has
been found in one place, a type of purple onion originally from
Russia that is somewhere else. A type of small daffodil that you can
find along roadsides, sort of gone wild, is a very old type planted
by early settlers. I love the old, almost-extinct varieties of garden
plants like that. It would make an interesting study, if someone
hasn't already done one.
Thanks for letting me know about this.
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 19, 2007, at 8:38 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> http://www.state.va.us/dcr/dnh/vaflora.htm#project
>
> The Project
> "The Flora of Virginia Project has been initiated to prepare and
> publish a comprehensive manual of Virginia's 3700+ native and
> naturalized plant taxa, from oaks to cattails, ferns to pines,
> kudzu to coneflowers. Designed as a book with an accompanying web
> site, this Flora will serve the urgent needs of scientists,
> students, and citizens interested in plants and their habitats in
> Virginia. Access to this information provides a deeper
> understanding of Virginia's plants and ecosystems, and increases
> our ability and desire to conserve the Commonwealth's plants and
> environments they inhabit. Development of the Flora, the first in
> Virginia's modern history, already has the support of a broad
> spectrum of Virginia organizations, institutions, and
> individuals....."
>
> The Flora of Virginia project has begun and is already receiving
> rave reviews, mostly due to the work of Lara Call Gastinger who is
> the illustrator for this important work. The last time anything
> like this was done for Virginia native plants was in the mid 18th
> century and it was by a Dutchman named Johannes Frederick Gronovius
> (1690-1762) who did his work with the help of Mark Catesby and John
> Clayton who was the County Clerk of Gloucester County from 1720
> until he died in 1773. John Clayton was an avid plant collector and
> amateur botanist (there is a lovely, soft-lemon colored honeysuckle
> around today (Lonicera sempervirens 'John Clayton') that he
> identified. Anyway, the Flora of Virginia task is underway and
> some of you folks might be interested in knowing about it.
>
> Below is some info I gleaned from the John Clayton website and his
> association with Linnaeus and Catesby and Gronovius.
>
> Deane Mills,
>
> York County, VA
>
> John Clayton (1694-1773) was one of the early collectors of plant
> specimens in Virginia, where he was Clerk to the County Court of
> Gloucester County from 1720 until his death 53 years later.
> Although he published almost nothing himself, Clayton's specimens
> have considerable nomenclatural importance as, having reached
> Europe and the hands of J.F. Gronovius (1690-1762) by 1735, many of
> them were studied by the Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus
> (1707-1778) and were among the earliest North American specimens
> that he had seen.
> 'Clayton began sending to Gronovius large numbers of dried plant
> specimens for identification as early as 1735, if not earlier.
> These plants, many of which were unknown, could not have reached
> him at a more auspicious time. On August 30, 1735, Gronovius wrote
> to his English friend, Dr. Richard Richardson: "You will remember
> that at the time you arrived here in town, you met at Mr. Lawson's
> a gentleman from Sweden, that went the same night to Amsterdam,
> where he is printing his Bibliothecam Botanicum. His name is
> Carolus Linnaeus..." ' Berkeley and Berkeley (1963: 58).
> Without Clayton's knowledge, Gronovius prepared and published a
> Flora Virginica (1739-1743), based on a manuscript of Clayton's and
> his specimens. When, in his monumental Species Plantarum (1753),
> Linnaeus introduced the consistent use of binomial nomenclature,
> his knowledge of North American species was based heavily on
> Clayton's specimens, along with those of his own student, Pehr Kalm
> (1716-1779). Consequently, many of Clayton's specimens are types of
> Linnaean names.
>
> Although Linnaeus obtained some duplicates of Clayton's specimens,
> now to be found in Linnaeus's own herbarium at the Linnean Society
> of London, the specimens that Gronovius had studied were bought in
> 1794 by Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), the naturalist who travelled
> with Captain Cook. They subsequently passed, with the rest of
> Banks's collections, to the British Museum (Natural History) - now
> The Natural History Museum, in London. Until recently, the
> specimens were dispersed through the main collection. However,
> increasing interest in Clayton's plants recently led to the
> specimens being extracted and curated as a separate collection so
> that they could be studied more easily.
>
> As potential type specimens for Linnaean names, they are of
> interest to the Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project, based at
> this Museum, and have also been a major focus for studies of the
> early botanical exploration of North America, notably by Professor
> James Reveal (University of Maryland). In 1993, thirty of Clayton's
> sheets formed part of an exhibition organised by Dr Norlyn Bodkin
> at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, generating
> considerable interest. This display subsequently travelled to
> Colonial Williamsburg and the Chicago Field Museum.
>
> As historically important collections, they are not normally
> available for loan but the interest in them has encouraged us to
> make images of them available as a pilot project for herbarium
> specimens from The Natural History Museum's collections.
>
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