The history of the naming of the Loblolly Bay.

Abstract

Many of our s tudents have long been convinced tha t taxonomists lie awake at n ight thinking of horrendous names for otherwise at tractive plants . They m a y feel vindicated to learn tha t several very competen t botanists required fifteen years to complete the n a m i n g of the Loblolly Bay, that handsome tree of the Southern Coastal Plain. The a t t empt to honor fr iends by n a m i n g p lan ts for them, so prevalent in the e ighteenth century was both na tu ra l and admirable, but it f requent ly provides a source of considerable confusion for present-day researchers . A n a m e proposed by an Amer ican botanist , and refer red to by h im in a n u m b e r of letters, was of ten la ter rejected and the name applied to a different plant . Some of the original correspondence m a y have been lost, while some survived. I t is not difficult to be misled. In the case of the LobloUy Bay, the correspondence has for tunate ly been largely preserved. In December 1755, Dr. Alexander Garden (1730-1791) of Charles Town, South Carolina, sent a large sh ipment of seeds to John Ellis (ca. 1710-1776) of London. Students of this period of the history of biology will be fami l ia r with both of these gent lemen. For the benefit of others, Alexander Garden was a young Scot who had received his educat ion at Marischal College in Aberdeen and at the Universi ty of Edinburgh. He had spent several years as a surgeon 's ma te in the British Navy before sett l ing in South Carol ina in 1753. Ellis eventually n a m e d the Cape Jessamine Gardenia, but that is another long story, as is Garden 's effort to n a m e a p lant Ellisia. Ellis was a nat ive of I re land, but spent mos t of his life in London. He was for a t ime a merchan t , bu t la ter became King's Agent for West Florida and for Dominica. An able natural is t , he was a very active m e m b e r of the Royal Society of London. His