Applied Botany: Some Cultivated Plants

Applied Botany: Some Cultivated Plants

Throughout his life, Ravenel was actively involved in agriculture as well as in science.  He wrote not only for scientific publications, but also for more general readerships in the Southern Agriculturist & Horticulturist, the Southern Cultivator, the Southern Farmer & Market Gardener, and Farmer and Planter.   Ravenel grew an assortment of grape varieties at Hampton Hill, near Aiken.  His diary indicates, in the summer of 1860, that he was very interested in the development of the local fruit industry, and was himself involved in shipping considerable amounts of peaches to New York. The Herbemonte grape was a popular variety, growing well in the southern states.

This specimen had been widely grown as a source of sorghum molasses, and also for seed and fodder. Ravenel almost certainly knew James H. Hammond socially; Hammond (1807-1864), later to serve as state senator (and governor), had been elected as a General within the local militia, prior to the Civil War. In addition to being a rather flamboyant political personality, Hammond was a successful planter, and was very interested in new crops for introduction.

There are two separate plants on this sheet, and they are likely from different populations.  The specimen was repaired in the 1930's, remounted on period paper, and then sent to Agnes Chase for determination.
A specimen of “Rhamie”
Boehmeria
Boehmeria [in pencil: "tenacissima"]
Rhamie cultivated 
Aiken S.C.
H.W.R.
Current name: Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaudich; "Rhamie."

Cultivated in Aiken, probably collected in the 1880s.  Rhamie has enjoyed a reputation as an important fiber crop (the fibers obtained from tissues in the stems) and it was grown with some success in 19th Century South Carolina.

One of Ravenel's late collections, taken from a cultivated street tree in Aiken.  This plant is introduced from Asia, and is still commonly grown in warmer parts of the USA.  Its green bark and twigs, deeply lobed leaves, fragrant flowers, and prominent, yellow fall foliage make it an attractive curiosity.  It still grows around Aiken, as well as other cities in South Carolina. (It appears in a few places on the USC campus, and around downtown Columbia.)

During the later years of his life, Ravenel, as seen in his journal, became less and less interested in politics, and became more devoted to his garden and to sharing information with other botanists.  He died three years to the month after collecting this specimen.

Ravenel in the South Caroliniana Library

"My lichens have all been placed in the hands of Mr Tuckennan, among which he has found several new species I shall be pleased to make up a package of American Fungi for you it will be only the discharge of a just debt, to return to you an equivalent in this humble wav."

 

Ravenel’s Fungi and the South Carolina College library, 1860
Private Journal of Henry William Ravenel, January 18, 1860

"I wrote a letter today to Prof Laborde of Columbia, to ask if the College intended taking the other numbers of my 'Fungi Exsic.' They took the first, but have not called for the others."

 

The Natural Historian in Wartime, 1865
Henry William Ravenel, Hampton Hill, Autograph Letter, Signed, to his brotherinlaw, Dr. Richard Y. Dwight, April 1, 1865,

"I have suffered as much from my 'friends' (Wheeler's cavalry) as we did from the enemy My worst loss is the breaking open of my desk & the loss & mutilation of my papers, records, manuscripts, packages of letters, botanical correspondence of 20 years  Not many of my books were taken nor was my herbarium touched."

"It [life as a planter] suited my previous inclination & my turn of mind. I had paid much attention to Chemistry & Natural Philosophy in College & was pleased with this glimpse I got of the world of Nature. I lived in the country & took up a fondness for Botany making a few collections plants & fossils. I had a visit from a travelling naturalist a Mr Olmstead who was collecting plants. He initiated me fairly in the mode of making collections, & so interested me in the subject that I commenced then to collect & study. At the end of the first season I had made a very respectable beginning. My house at Northampton was burned down the following winter & all my collection destroyed. I began anew in the spring, & with the aid of Dr Bachman at first, & then afterwards of Dr Curtis, Prof Gray & others, continued the recreation. About 1846 I commenced the investigation of Cryptogamic botany, & made much progress in my collection having the correspondence & aid of Dr Curtis & Mr Berkeley on the fungi, of Tuckerman in the Lichens & Sullivant in the Mosses."

This brief guide, written in the aftermath of war, focuses on growing foodstuffs, rather than on scientific botany.  Alongside the pamphlet itself are shown a page from Ravenel’s original manuscript and Ravenel’s wheelshaped foldout chart indicating planting seasons and the seasons for other garden tasks.  

"I received a letter yesterday from Prof Sargent stating that he has undertaken the collection of wood specimens of our trees for the American Museum of Nat. History in New York, & asking my assistance in procuring specimens from this region. The compensation will be the same as for the [census] work last year. I have written to him