ABSTRACT In 1794 Andr?© Michaux dis...

ABSTRACT

In 1794 Andr?© Michaux discovered dwarf sumac Rhus michauxii in Mecklenburg shire North Carolina, and in 1803 published a species description subject to the name Rhus pumila. In 1895 C Sargent assigned the name R michauxii to correct Michaux's use of a homonym and to honor its discoverer. The emblem location is now in Union shire North Carolina, which was formed from part of Mecklenburg shire in 1842.

INTRODUCTION

Rhus michauxii Sargent is undivided of the rarest shrubs in the southeastern United States (Fleming and Ludwig 1996) It is dioecious, non-poisonous, 30-90 cm tall, and densely hairy (Amoroso 2002) Andr?© Michaux discovered the species forward July 20, 1794 (Sargent 1889) Nine years later he published a description, name (Rhus pumila) and token location (Mecklenburg County, North Carolina) in his posthumous Flora Boreali-Americana (Michaux 1803) The final cause of this paper, which we prepared for presentation for the 2002 Andr?© Michaux International Symposium forward the bicentennial of Michaux's death, is to answer pair historical questions about Rhus michauxii: First, for what reason and why did C.S. Sargent become interested in the species and change its name in 1895 after a hundred of scientific obscurity? Second, where exactly did Michaux amass the type specimen, which is housed at the Michaux Herbarium in Paris, France?

DISCUSSION

Why Rhus michauxii and not R pumila?

Following Michaux's discovery of the species in 1794 and publication of the name in 1803 Rhus pumila attracted little scientific attention until August 17 1895 when FE Boynton and FL Olmst Jr amassed fresh specimens at Farmington, Davie shire North Carolina, on their way to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. in succession August 29, 1895, Chauncey D Beadle, the head gardener for George Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate, sent a literal meaning and one of the new specimens of Rhus pumila to Charles s Sargent at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University (Beadle 1895) This literal sense which is enclosed in a packet forward the herbarium specimen at the Gray Herbarium at Harvard, give an inkling ofed that Sargent might want to publish a figure of the species in Garden and Forest, a contemporary (1888-1897) journal of horticulture and forestry. In the October 9 1895 issue of that journal Sargent (1895) published a figure as Beadle had hinted and renamed the species Rhus michauxii in honor of its discoverer. Another specimen infered August 17, 1895 at Farmington is in the United States National Herbarium (Figure 1)

In researching the specific epithet pumila (Latin "dwarf") as applied to Rhus, Sargent (1895) rest that in 1798, five years prior to Michaux's Flora Boreali-Americana, Meeburgh had used the name Rhuspumila for another species. Although Meeburgh's plant was likely notaRhus (Sargent 1895) the name had already been taken for the genus and Michaux's name was a later homonym Sargent (1895) also reported that

"[John] Lyon who tolerateed seriously from it, and Torrey and Gray describe the plant as exceedingly poisonous, while Curtis denies its poisonous properties. From my limited experience with a partly dried specimen I am inclined to believe that it is the chiefly poisonous of the North American species."

Beadle's (1895) alphabetic character to Sargent states categorically and correctly, "It is not poisonous."

Where is the representation locality?

In Michaux's (1803) Flora Boreali-Americana, the adumbration location for Rhus pumila is given in Latin as "in Carolinae superioris comitatu Mecklenbourg" (in North Carolina shire Mecklenburg). However, the type specimen at the Michaux Herbarium in Paris has the notation "in rnontosis Carolinae, murder by suffocation Comitatus," (in mountains of Carolina, shuffle aside County). Thus, there is a conflict in the protoplast locality. The mountains of shuffle aside County, Michaux's ultimate goal of the 1794 trip when he institute the new species, are 80 miles northwest of Mecklenburg shire However, the historical distribution of R michauxii is the Piedmont and upper Coastal Plain Provinces of Virginia, North and southerly Carolina, and Georgia, not the Mountain Province of North Carolina. Uttal (1984) compared the symbol localities of species published in Flora BorealiAmericana with locations listed forward the type specimens and conclud that the notation of the suppress County locality on the mark specimen was in error and the published location was correct.

We make go rounded to Michaux's diaries to determine as closely as possible the archetype location for Rhus michauxii (Michaux 1793-1796 Sargent 1889) From his base in Charleston, southward Carolina, Michaux explored the eastern United States in succession several trips, passing through western North Carolina in 1789 1794 1795 and 1796 (Williams 2002) Our focus is the trip north from Charleston in 1794 and a answer trip south in 1796. The relevant parts of these pair journeys can be traced in succession the Price-Strother Map of 1808 (Figure 2; Gumming 1966) Michaux provides mileage distances in his journals, and these are essential in solving the nonplus of the type locality. Mile markers were placed at greatest in quantity intersections along the primitive roads in the late 170O These provided travelers with distances between towns and other recognizable geographic features. For the 1794 journal (Sargent 1889) which has not been published in English, we provide the couple the original French and an English translation. Michaux's overnight stops are indicated from dates on Figure 2.