William Baldwin (botanist)
Encyclopedia
William Baldwin was an American physician
and botanist who is today remembered for his significant contributions to botany
. He lived in Pennsylvania
, Delaware
, and Georgia
, and served as a ship's surgeon on two voyages overseas. He published only two scientific papers, but his major contributions were in the knowledge that he imparted to other botanists in his letters to them and in the thousands of specimens that he provided for their herbaria
. He wrote letters to Henry Muhlenberg
, Stephen Elliott
, William Darlington
, Zaccheus Collins, and others. His most important collections were from Georgia
, Florida
, and eastern South America
. When he died, he left a large herbarium that proved to be of great value, especially to Lewis David von Schweinitz
, John Torrey, and Asa Gray
. He had a special interest in the plant family
Cyperaceae
and his incomplete, unpublished manuscripts were a major source for monograph
s by John Torrey and Asa Gray. The historian Joseph Ewan has said that "Baldwin's treatment of a number of genera, especially in the Cyperaceae, showed penetrating observation, understanding, and diagnosis". The genus
Balduina
was named for him by Thomas Nuttall
. Most of what we know of him is from the biography written by his friend, William Darlington, in 1843.
, a small township
about one kilometer southeast of Embreeville
in Chester County
. He was the son of Elizabeth Baldwin (nee Garretson) and Thomas Baldwin, a Quaker
minister. He suffered from poor health all of his life because of chronic tuberculosis
, and like the rest of his family, he eventually died of it. At the time, his condition was called hereditary tuberculosis, but it is now known that tuberculosis is an infectious disease
.
William Baldwin had little formal education, but he had a thirst for knowledge and became a school teacher at a young age. When he was not teaching class, he was in Downingtown
, Chester County, studying medicine under Dr. William A. Todd. It was here that he met Moses Marshall, the nephew of botanist Humphry Marshall
. He sometimes went with Moses Marshall to Marshallton
in Chester County to study the botanic garden
that his uncle had established there. Thus began the young Baldwin's lifelong enthusiasm for botany In 1802, he took one course in medicine at the University of Tennessee
, but soon ran out of money, and returned to his studies under Dr. Todd.
It was near the end of 1802 when he began his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia. One of his teachers, Benjamin Smith Barton, encouraged his study of botany and taught him much on the subject. Barton occasionally took Baldwin and other students on botanical excursions into the countryside.
While Baldwin was attending the university, one of his friends and fellow students, William Darlington
developed a serious illness. Baldwin devoted much time and effort to assisting his recovery. Thus began a close and lifelong friendship. After one course at the University of Pennsylvania, Baldwin again fell short financially, and in 1803 returned to Dr. Todd to work as his assistant.
In 1805, he secured a position as a surgeon on a ship, and sailed to Antwerp, then to Guangzhou
, and returned to Philadelphia in 1806. During this voyage, he earned enough money to complete his studies. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded the degree of M.D. in April of 1807.
and married Hannah Webster a young lady who had far more education than most women of her time. They would eventually have four daughters.
William Baldwin and his wife considered themselves to be devout Quakers, but they were thrown out of meeting for getting married by a Presbyterian minister whom the Quakers called a mere "hireling". Baldwin apologized for this and was reinstated.
During his time in Wilmington, he lived by the practice of medicine and spent his leisure hours in botany. In January of 1811, he received a letter from Henry Muhlenberg
which began as follows:
Thus began an enduring friendship and a correspondence that eventually consisted of 90 letters, continuing to the death of Dr. Muhlenberg in 1815.
at his plantation
in South Carolina. Baldwin sent Elliott many specimens in the following years, and also some descriptions, which Elliott included in his book A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia, giving Baldwin full credit for having written them.
The War of 1812
began on the 18th of June of that year with the declaration of war
by the U.S. Congress, and soon thereafter, Baldwin joined the navy as a surgeon. For this, he was thrown out of meeting for the second time by the Quakers. He protested that he had gone to war "not to make wounds, but to heal them", but his membership was never restored in spite of his determined efforts to regain it.
Baldwin's military service lasted nearly 4½ years, from the summer of 1812 to the autumn of 1816. He spent the first 2½ years of his service at St. Marys, Georgia
, a small settlement at the mouth of the St. Marys River
. The next two years were spent in Savannah
. While he lived in Georgia, he sometimes took long journeys on foot, traveling deep into territory occupied by the Creek Indians. He was well received by the natives, and he, in turn, was deeply sympathetic toward them. In his biographical sketch of Baldwin, Darlington writes:
When Baldwin left the navy near the end of 1816, he sent his family back to Wilmington. In the winter of 1816 to 1817 through the spring of 1817, he continued to live in Georgia, making frequent botanical excursions there and in what would soon become the state of Florida. At that time, many Americans called it East Florida
.
He returned to Wilmington in 1817 in spite of concerns about his health. In August of that year, while passing through Philadelphia, he met Zaccheus Collins and they became fast friends.
In 1817, President James Monroe
selected Caesar Augustus Rodney, John Graham, and Theodorick Bland, as commissioners for a special diplomatic mission to South America, the South American Commission of 1817-1818. Because of his reputation as a botanist, Baldwin was selected to sail on the frigate
"Congress"
as a botanical investigator as well as the ship's surgeon. He embarked late in 1817 and returned to Wilmington in July of 1818. During its voyage, the "Congress" stopped at the ports of Rio de Janeiro
, Montevideo
, Buenos Aires
, Maldonado
, San Salvador, Brazil
, and Margarita Island, Venezuela
. During these stops, Baldwin found plenty of opportunity to collect plants that he would press and dry for later study.
After Baldwin returned to Wilmington in July of 1818, he planned to study the large collection of plants that he had accumulated, and he began to prepare manuscripts for publication. He exchanged letters with Zaccheus Collins and William Darlington on Cyperus
, Scirpus
, and Rhynchospora
, members of the family Cyperaceae
that he was preparing a treatment of. He wrote to Darlington that "It will not do to hurry - there has been too much hurrying among our botanists."
But his plans were not to be fulfilled. The U.S. government was preparing an expedition, to be led by Major Stephen Long
, to explore the upper reaches of the Missouri River
. William Darlington and John Eatton Le Conte
recommended Baldwin as the botanist for this mission and urged him to go.
Panicum
and Paspalum
to accept the appointment as botanist on Major Long's expedition. In March of 1819, he traveled to Pittsburgh to join other members of the expedition. There were delays in Pittsburgh, and departure did not occur until the 5th of May.
Baldwin believed that travel would sustain his health, but might have had premonitions of his fate. Soon after he started down the Ohio River
, He wrote to Darlington:
In another letter to Darlington, he described the condition of the boat.
A stop was made in Cincinnati for a whole week, partly for repairs, and partly because of the alarming condition of Dr. Baldwin. The expedition reached Franklin, Missouri
, a small town across the river from Boonville
in mid-July where Baldwin resigned from the expedition to convalesce in the home of John J. Lowry.
The following October, William Darlington received a letter from John J. Lowry, which began as follows:
William Baldwin was among the first of about 100 members of Major Long's expedition to die of disease and deprivation. When word of this reached the U.S. Congress, they immediately declared the expedition a failure and terminated its funding. Thus ended the ill-fated venture which claimed the life of one of America's greatest botanists.
Baldwin was 40 years and 5 months of age at the time of his death. He was buried on the banks of the Missouri River. At the end of his biographical sketch of Baldwin, Darlington, in 1843, wrote:
In January of 1844, Lowry wrote to Darlington to tell him that the grave of his friend had been washed away by the floodwaters of the Missouri.
Baldwin's first scientific paper was on two new species of Rottboellia
that he had found on the coast of Georgia. It was published in the year of his death. His only other paper was read before a meeting of the American Philosophical Society on 16 April 1819 as he made his way down the Ohio River, but it was not published until 1825. Its subject was two species of Cyperus
from Georgia and four Species of Kyllinga
from South America.
s, the material that formed the basis of the description that was given when the plant was named. The whereabouts of this material is sometimes discovered unexpectedly. For example, a set of 18 specimens that Baldwin gave to the American Philosophical Society
in March 1819 was neglected, probably because of its small size, and was not studied until 1978. At that time, it was found to contain the type specimens of some species of Rhynchospora
.
William Baldwin donated generously to the collections of others, often exchanging some of his plants for plants that he desired. He contributed much to the herbaria if Muhlenberg, Elliott, Collins, and Darlington. He also sent specimens to Aylmer Bourke Lambert
and Aime Bonpland
, and in 1817, he sent some to James Edward Smith
. Smith published several new species based on material that Baldwin had sent him. In 1811, he sent moss
and lichen
specimens to Olof Swartz
and Erik Acharius
. In 1815, he sent more of the same to Christian Friedrich Schwaegrichen.
Upon Baldwin's death, his widow wanted to give his herbarium to William Darlington, but Darlington would not accept it because he thought that she should sell it, and he was unable to pay her what it was worth. Zaccheus Collins bought Baldwin's herbarium, but made no scientific use of it. Collins was a Philadelphia merchant who knew as much botany as anyone, but to the exasperation of botanists of his time, chose to create one of the best herbaria in the United States, but published nothing. Collins died without a will in 1831. He had kept the Baldwin herbarium separate from the rest of his collection. The executor of his estate, his son-in-law, sold the Baldwin herbarium to Lewis von Schweinitz for $105 in 1833. Schweinitz already had a herbarium holding 20,000 species, and the addition of the Baldwin herbarium gave Schwienitz 3000 species that he did not already have. At this time, he wrote to John Torrey, offering him duplicates from the Baldwin herbarium of plants that he already had.
Schweinitz died in 1834, before he could fully mine the riches of the Baldwin herbarium. John Torrey used letters that he had received from Schweinitz to obtain from Schweinitz's widow a part of the Baldwin herbarium which he shared with Asa Gray. The rest of the Baldwin herbarium then went to its present location at the Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia.
The plants that Baldwin had given to Collins' main collection were given with that collection to Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in the spring of 1837 in payment of a debt owed to Rafinesque by the Collins estate. Rafinesque died in 1840 and his herbarium was acquired the following year by Elias Durand
, the curator of the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Durand, a citizen of France
, discarded much of the Rafinesque herbarium and sent the remainder to Paris where it remains today as the Herbier Durand in the Herbier National de Paris at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle
.
Those plants that Baldwin gave to Darlington are now in the Darlington Herbarium at Westchester University of Pennsylvania. Those that he gave to James Edward Smith are in the Smithian Herbarium at Kew Gardens, London
. Other plants attributed to Baldwin are at the University of Manchester
Herbarium and at the herbarium of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
.
The historian
Ronald L. Stuckey has found that Thomas Nuttall, Stephen Elliott, Asa Gray, John Torrey, and Constantine Rafinesque together published at least 109 new species based on material provided by William Baldwin. Twelve of these descriptions were actually written by Baldwin, and published by Stephen Elliott in Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia. Muhlenberg did not record where his specimens came from, but it is known that Baldwin sent him many. James Edward Smith also described new species from material sent by Baldwin.
for him in 1818, deriving the name from a Latinization of "Baldwin". At the bottom of the page where Balduina is described, we find the footnote:
The insertion of the footnote is a bit of a mystery, since the book was published the year before Baldwin died.
John Torrey and Asa Gray changed Balduina to Baldwinia in 1840, but this orthography
was not generally accepted. Balduina is now a conserved name.
Balduina is a genus of three species native to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain. Not all authors have put them in one genus and they have had various names, but a revision
of Asteraceae
in 2007 placed all three of these species together in Balduina.
Several species of plants have been named for William Baldwin. Among those names that are still in use, we have, including authors, the following names: Eleocharis
baldwinii (John Torrey) Alvan Wentworth Chapman
, Rhynchospora
baldwinii Asa Gray, Saccharum baldwinii Curt Sprengel, Clematis
baldwinii John Torrey and Asa Gray, Paronychia
baldwinii (Torrey and Gray) Eduard Fenzl
and Wilhelm Walpers
, Eryngium
baldwinii Curt Sprengel, Vernonia
baldwinii John Torrey, Xyris
baldwiniana Josef Schultes
, and Matelea
baldwyniana (Robert Sweet
) Robert Woodson.
At least six other plants, including Fimbristylis
annua, Dichanthelium
ensifolium, Ptelea trifoliata, Silene
catesbaei, Symphyotrichum
undulatum, and Viguiera
(Rhysolepis
) anchusifolia have had names that honored Baldwin, but these are no longer in use.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and botanist who is today remembered for his significant contributions to botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
. He lived in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, and served as a ship's surgeon on two voyages overseas. He published only two scientific papers, but his major contributions were in the knowledge that he imparted to other botanists in his letters to them and in the thousands of specimens that he provided for their herbaria
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
. He wrote letters to Henry Muhlenberg
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and botanist.-Biography:The son of Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, he was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He was educated at in Halle starting in 1763 and in 1769 at the University of Halle. He returned to Pennsylvania in September 1770...
, Stephen Elliott
Stephen Elliott (botanist)
Stephen Elliott was an American legislator, banker, educator, and botanist who is today remembered for having written one of the most important works in American botany, A Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia.-Biography:Stephen Elliott was born in Beaufort, South Carolina on...
, William Darlington
William Darlington
William Darlington was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.William Darlington was born in Birmingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He attended Friends School at Birmingham and spent his youth on a farm...
, Zaccheus Collins, and others. His most important collections were from Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and eastern South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. When he died, he left a large herbarium that proved to be of great value, especially to Lewis David von Schweinitz
Lewis David von Schweinitz
Lewis David de Schweinitz was a German-American botanist and mycologist. He is considered by some the "Father of North American Mycology", but also made significant contributions to botany.-Education:...
, John Torrey, and Asa Gray
Asa Gray
-References:*Asa Gray. Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.*Asa Gray. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.*Asa Gray. Plant Sciences. 4 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001....
. He had a special interest in the plant family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
and his incomplete, unpublished manuscripts were a major source for monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s by John Torrey and Asa Gray. The historian Joseph Ewan has said that "Baldwin's treatment of a number of genera, especially in the Cyperaceae, showed penetrating observation, understanding, and diagnosis". The genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Balduina
Balduina
Balduina, population 42,000, is an urban area that belongs to the Municipio XIX of the commune of Rome, and to the fourteenth borough of the city,...
was named for him by Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841....
. Most of what we know of him is from the biography written by his friend, William Darlington, in 1843.
Pennsylvania
William Baldwin was born in Newlin Township, PennsylvaniaNewlin Township, Pennsylvania
Newlin Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,285 at the 2010 census.Newlin Township was the hometown of explorer Josiah Harlan. William Baldwin, the botanist, was born there on the 29th of March, 1779....
, a small township
Township
The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...
about one kilometer southeast of Embreeville
Embreeville, Pennsylvania
Embreeville is an historical unincorporated community, little more than a rural stretch of road with a few businesses and homes, mostly in Newlin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania and partially in West Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, inside a bend of Brandywine Creek. It is...
in Chester County
Chester County, Pennsylvania
-State parks:*French Creek State Park*Marsh Creek State Park*White Clay Creek Preserve-Demographics:As of the 2010 census, the county was 85.5% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 3.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 1.8% were two or more races, and 2.4% were...
. He was the son of Elizabeth Baldwin (nee Garretson) and Thomas Baldwin, a Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
minister. He suffered from poor health all of his life because of chronic tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and like the rest of his family, he eventually died of it. At the time, his condition was called hereditary tuberculosis, but it is now known that tuberculosis is an infectious disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
.
William Baldwin had little formal education, but he had a thirst for knowledge and became a school teacher at a young age. When he was not teaching class, he was in Downingtown
Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Downingtown is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,891. Downingtown was settled by English and European colonists in the early 18th century and has a number of historic buildings and structures.-History:The town was...
, Chester County, studying medicine under Dr. William A. Todd. It was here that he met Moses Marshall, the nephew of botanist Humphry Marshall
Humphry Marshall
Humphry Marshall was an American botanist and plant dealer.-Biography:Humphry Marshall was born in the village of Marshallton, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1722. He was the cousin of botanist John Bartram and William Bartram...
. He sometimes went with Moses Marshall to Marshallton
Marshallton, Pennsylvania
Marshallton is a census-designated place in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,437 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Marshallton is located at ....
in Chester County to study the botanic garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
that his uncle had established there. Thus began the young Baldwin's lifelong enthusiasm for botany In 1802, he took one course in medicine at the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
, but soon ran out of money, and returned to his studies under Dr. Todd.
It was near the end of 1802 when he began his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in Philadelphia. One of his teachers, Benjamin Smith Barton, encouraged his study of botany and taught him much on the subject. Barton occasionally took Baldwin and other students on botanical excursions into the countryside.
While Baldwin was attending the university, one of his friends and fellow students, William Darlington
William Darlington
William Darlington was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.William Darlington was born in Birmingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He attended Friends School at Birmingham and spent his youth on a farm...
developed a serious illness. Baldwin devoted much time and effort to assisting his recovery. Thus began a close and lifelong friendship. After one course at the University of Pennsylvania, Baldwin again fell short financially, and in 1803 returned to Dr. Todd to work as his assistant.
In 1805, he secured a position as a surgeon on a ship, and sailed to Antwerp, then to Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, and returned to Philadelphia in 1806. During this voyage, he earned enough money to complete his studies. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded the degree of M.D. in April of 1807.
Delaware
Before the end of 1807, he had moved to Wilmington, DelawareWilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
and married Hannah Webster a young lady who had far more education than most women of her time. They would eventually have four daughters.
William Baldwin and his wife considered themselves to be devout Quakers, but they were thrown out of meeting for getting married by a Presbyterian minister whom the Quakers called a mere "hireling". Baldwin apologized for this and was reinstated.
During his time in Wilmington, he lived by the practice of medicine and spent his leisure hours in botany. In January of 1811, he received a letter from Henry Muhlenberg
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and botanist.-Biography:The son of Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, he was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He was educated at in Halle starting in 1763 and in 1769 at the University of Halle. He returned to Pennsylvania in September 1770...
which began as follows:
-
-
- "Lancaster, [Penn'a] January 7, 1811
- Sir: Will you forgive me, if I, as a stranger, intrude upon your studies, and beg your
- acquaintance? Doctor Hiester, the present physician of the Lazaretto, informs me that
- you are a great friend of Botany..."
-
Thus began an enduring friendship and a correspondence that eventually consisted of 90 letters, continuing to the death of Dr. Muhlenberg in 1815.
Georgia
In Wilmington, Baldwin's health continued to deteriorate, and in the autumn of 1811, he moved to Georgia to avoid the severity of the northern winters. In January of 1812, he visited Stephen ElliottStephen Elliott (botanist)
Stephen Elliott was an American legislator, banker, educator, and botanist who is today remembered for having written one of the most important works in American botany, A Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia.-Biography:Stephen Elliott was born in Beaufort, South Carolina on...
at his plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
in South Carolina. Baldwin sent Elliott many specimens in the following years, and also some descriptions, which Elliott included in his book A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia, giving Baldwin full credit for having written them.
The War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
began on the 18th of June of that year with the declaration of war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
by the U.S. Congress, and soon thereafter, Baldwin joined the navy as a surgeon. For this, he was thrown out of meeting for the second time by the Quakers. He protested that he had gone to war "not to make wounds, but to heal them", but his membership was never restored in spite of his determined efforts to regain it.
Baldwin's military service lasted nearly 4½ years, from the summer of 1812 to the autumn of 1816. He spent the first 2½ years of his service at St. Marys, Georgia
St. Marys, Georgia
-See also:*Cumberland Island*St. Marys Historic District*St. Marys Railroad-External links:***...
, a small settlement at the mouth of the St. Marys River
St. Marys River (Florida/Georgia)
The St. Marys River is a river in the southeastern United States. It is named after the Irish Saint Mary. From near its source in the Okefenokee Swamp, to its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean, it forms a portion of the border between the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida...
. The next two years were spent in Savannah
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
. While he lived in Georgia, he sometimes took long journeys on foot, traveling deep into territory occupied by the Creek Indians. He was well received by the natives, and he, in turn, was deeply sympathetic toward them. In his biographical sketch of Baldwin, Darlington writes:
-
- "With a knapsack on his back, he made several journeys on foot, and sometimes entirely
- alone, far within the territory of the Indians: and such was his gentle, inoffensive
- demeanor, among these Children of the Forest, that he completely secured their good will,
- and uniformly experienced from them the kindest and most friendly treatment. His
- humane disposition predisposed him to a favorable estimate of the Aboriginal character:
- he sympathised deeply with the wrongs and privations suffered by the native Proprietors of
- the Wilderness: and the result of his intercourse with them, was a firm conviction that
- they were a race "more sinned against than sinning.""
When Baldwin left the navy near the end of 1816, he sent his family back to Wilmington. In the winter of 1816 to 1817 through the spring of 1817, he continued to live in Georgia, making frequent botanical excursions there and in what would soon become the state of Florida. At that time, many Americans called it East Florida
East Florida
East Florida was a colony of Great Britain from 1763–1783 and of Spain from 1783–1822. East Florida was established by the British colonial government in 1763; as its name implies it consisted of the eastern part of the region of Florida, with West Florida comprising the western parts. Its capital...
.
He returned to Wilmington in 1817 in spite of concerns about his health. In August of that year, while passing through Philadelphia, he met Zaccheus Collins and they became fast friends.
In 1817, President James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
selected Caesar Augustus Rodney, John Graham, and Theodorick Bland, as commissioners for a special diplomatic mission to South America, the South American Commission of 1817-1818. Because of his reputation as a botanist, Baldwin was selected to sail on the frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
"Congress"
USS Congress (1799)
USS Congress was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was named by George Washington to reflect a principal of the United States Constitution. James Hackett built her in Portsmouth New Hampshire and she was launched on 15 August 1799...
as a botanical investigator as well as the ship's surgeon. He embarked late in 1817 and returned to Wilmington in July of 1818. During its voyage, the "Congress" stopped at the ports of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Maldonado
Maldonado, Uruguay
Maldonado is the capital of Maldonado Department of Uruguay. It is located on Route 39 and shares borders with Punta del Este to the south, Pinares - Las Delicias to the south and to the east and suburb La Sonrisa to the north. Together they all for a unified metropolitan area. East of the city...
, San Salvador, Brazil
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
, and Margarita Island, Venezuela
Isla Margarita
Margarita Island is the largest island of the state of Nueva Esparta in Venezuela, situated in the Caribbean Sea, off the northeastern coast of the country. The state also contains two other smaller islands: Coche and Cubagua. The capital city of Nueva Esparta is La Asunción, located in a river...
. During these stops, Baldwin found plenty of opportunity to collect plants that he would press and dry for later study.
After Baldwin returned to Wilmington in July of 1818, he planned to study the large collection of plants that he had accumulated, and he began to prepare manuscripts for publication. He exchanged letters with Zaccheus Collins and William Darlington on Cyperus
Cyperus
Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic and growing in still or slow-moving water up to 0.5 m deep. The species vary greatly in size, with small species...
, Scirpus
Scirpus
The plant genus Scirpus consists of a large number of aquatic, grass-like species in the family Cyperaceae , many with the common names club-rush or bulrush . Other common names are deergrass or grassweed.The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and grows in wetlands and moist soil...
, and Rhynchospora
Rhynchospora
Rhynchospora is a genus of about 250-300 species of sedges with a cosmopolitan distribution. The genus includes both annual and perennial species, mostly with erect 3-sided stems and 3-ranked leaves...
, members of the family Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
that he was preparing a treatment of. He wrote to Darlington that "It will not do to hurry - there has been too much hurrying among our botanists."
But his plans were not to be fulfilled. The U.S. government was preparing an expedition, to be led by Major Stephen Long
Stephen Harriman Long
Stephen Harriman Long was a U.S. army explorer, topographical engineer, and railway engineer. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s, although his career as an explorer was relatively...
, to explore the upper reaches of the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
. William Darlington and John Eatton Le Conte
John Eatton Le Conte
John Eatton Le Conte, Jr. was an American naturalist. He was born near Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the son of John Eatton Le Conte and Jane Sloane Le Conte...
recommended Baldwin as the botanist for this mission and urged him to go.
Missouri
William Baldwin dropped his work on the grassesPoaceae
The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...
Panicum
Panicum
Panicum is a large genus of about 450 species of grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone...
and Paspalum
Paspalum
Paspalum is a genus of the grass family . Commonly known as paspalums, bahiagrasses or dallis grasses most are tall perennial American grasses. They are most diverse in subtropical and tropical regions....
to accept the appointment as botanist on Major Long's expedition. In March of 1819, he traveled to Pittsburgh to join other members of the expedition. There were delays in Pittsburgh, and departure did not occur until the 5th of May.
Baldwin believed that travel would sustain his health, but might have had premonitions of his fate. Soon after he started down the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
, He wrote to Darlington:
-
- "I shall hold out as long as I can. Whether my remains are deposited on the banks
- of the Missouri, or among my kindred at home, is now a matter of little
- consequence"
In another letter to Darlington, he described the condition of the boat.
-
- "But this boat, - hastily constructed, and built entirely of unseasoned timber, - is
- almost daily in want of repairs; and is so leaky and wet, that we have not a dry locker for
- our clothes."
A stop was made in Cincinnati for a whole week, partly for repairs, and partly because of the alarming condition of Dr. Baldwin. The expedition reached Franklin, Missouri
Franklin, Missouri
Franklin is a city in Howard County, Missouri, United States. The population was 112 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.- Geography :Franklin is located at...
, a small town across the river from Boonville
Boonville, Missouri
This page is about the city in Missouri. For other communities of the same name, see Boonville Boonville is a city in Cooper County, Missouri, USA. The population was 8,202 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cooper County. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the American Civil...
in mid-July where Baldwin resigned from the expedition to convalesce in the home of John J. Lowry.
The following October, William Darlington received a letter from John J. Lowry, which began as follows:
-
-
- Franklin, Howard County, M. T. Sept. 15, 1819.
- Sir: It is my painful duty to inform you of your friend Wm. Baldwin, M.D. who died on the first
-
- inst. [instant,(of this month)] at my house. He was not able to proceed on the
- exploring expedition, and remained here till he died."
William Baldwin was among the first of about 100 members of Major Long's expedition to die of disease and deprivation. When word of this reached the U.S. Congress, they immediately declared the expedition a failure and terminated its funding. Thus ended the ill-fated venture which claimed the life of one of America's greatest botanists.
Baldwin was 40 years and 5 months of age at the time of his death. He was buried on the banks of the Missouri River. At the end of his biographical sketch of Baldwin, Darlington, in 1843, wrote:
-
- His gentle spirit forsook its frail tenement, in a region far remote from his anxious family, -
- and the wildflowers of the West, for more than twenty years, have been blooming on his lonely
- grave: But the recollection of his virtues continues to be fondly cherished by every surviving
- friend, - and his ardor in the pursuit of his favorite Science will render his memory forever
- dear to the true lovers of American Botany."
In January of 1844, Lowry wrote to Darlington to tell him that the grave of his friend had been washed away by the floodwaters of the Missouri.
Papers
Many of Baldwin's personal papers have been preserved. Some of these are in the Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden. Others are in the Asa Gray Archive at the Harvard University Herbarium.Baldwin's first scientific paper was on two new species of Rottboellia
Rottboellia
Rottboellia is a genus of grass in the Poaceae family.It was named in honour of Christen Friis Rottbøll by Carolus Linnaeus the Younger.-External links:*...
that he had found on the coast of Georgia. It was published in the year of his death. His only other paper was read before a meeting of the American Philosophical Society on 16 April 1819 as he made his way down the Ohio River, but it was not published until 1825. Its subject was two species of Cyperus
Cyperus
Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic and growing in still or slow-moving water up to 0.5 m deep. The species vary greatly in size, with small species...
from Georgia and four Species of Kyllinga
Kyllinga
Kyllinga is genus of flowering plants in the sedge family known commonly as spikesedges. They are native to tropical and warm temperate areas of the world, especially tropical Africa. These sedges vary in morphology, growing to heights from 2 centimeters to a meter and sometimes lacking rhizomes...
from South America.
Collections
One of the concerns of botany in the early 21st century is the location of type specimenHolotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
s, the material that formed the basis of the description that was given when the plant was named. The whereabouts of this material is sometimes discovered unexpectedly. For example, a set of 18 specimens that Baldwin gave to the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
in March 1819 was neglected, probably because of its small size, and was not studied until 1978. At that time, it was found to contain the type specimens of some species of Rhynchospora
Rhynchospora
Rhynchospora is a genus of about 250-300 species of sedges with a cosmopolitan distribution. The genus includes both annual and perennial species, mostly with erect 3-sided stems and 3-ranked leaves...
.
William Baldwin donated generously to the collections of others, often exchanging some of his plants for plants that he desired. He contributed much to the herbaria if Muhlenberg, Elliott, Collins, and Darlington. He also sent specimens to Aylmer Bourke Lambert
Aylmer Bourke Lambert
Aylmer Bourke Lambert was a British botanist, one of the first fellows of the Linnean Society.He is best known for his work A description of the genus Pinus, issued in several parts 1803-1824, a sumptuously illustrated folio volume detailing all of the conifers then known...
and Aime Bonpland
Aimé Bonpland
Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland was a French explorer and botanist.Bonpland's real name was Goujaud, and he was born in La Rochelle, a coastal city in France. After serving as a surgeon in the French army, and studying under J. N...
, and in 1817, he sent some to James Edward Smith
James Edward Smith
Sir James Edward Smith was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.Smith was born in Norwich in 1759, the son of a wealthy wool merchant. He displayed a precocious interest in the natural world...
. Smith published several new species based on material that Baldwin had sent him. In 1811, he sent moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
and lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
specimens to Olof Swartz
Olof Swartz
Olof Peter Swartz was a Swedish botanist and taxonomist. He is best known for his taxonomic work and studies into pteridophytes...
and Erik Acharius
Erik Acharius
Erik Acharius was a Swedish botanist who pioneered the taxonomy of lichens and is known as the "father of lichenology"....
. In 1815, he sent more of the same to Christian Friedrich Schwaegrichen.
Upon Baldwin's death, his widow wanted to give his herbarium to William Darlington, but Darlington would not accept it because he thought that she should sell it, and he was unable to pay her what it was worth. Zaccheus Collins bought Baldwin's herbarium, but made no scientific use of it. Collins was a Philadelphia merchant who knew as much botany as anyone, but to the exasperation of botanists of his time, chose to create one of the best herbaria in the United States, but published nothing. Collins died without a will in 1831. He had kept the Baldwin herbarium separate from the rest of his collection. The executor of his estate, his son-in-law, sold the Baldwin herbarium to Lewis von Schweinitz for $105 in 1833. Schweinitz already had a herbarium holding 20,000 species, and the addition of the Baldwin herbarium gave Schwienitz 3000 species that he did not already have. At this time, he wrote to John Torrey, offering him duplicates from the Baldwin herbarium of plants that he already had.
Schweinitz died in 1834, before he could fully mine the riches of the Baldwin herbarium. John Torrey used letters that he had received from Schweinitz to obtain from Schweinitz's widow a part of the Baldwin herbarium which he shared with Asa Gray. The rest of the Baldwin herbarium then went to its present location at the Academy of Natural Sciences
Academy of Natural Sciences
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World...
of Philadelphia.
The plants that Baldwin had given to Collins' main collection were given with that collection to Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in the spring of 1837 in payment of a debt owed to Rafinesque by the Collins estate. Rafinesque died in 1840 and his herbarium was acquired the following year by Elias Durand
Elias Durand
Elias Durand , born Élie Magloire Durand, was an eminent American pharmacist and botanist born in France....
, the curator of the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Durand, a citizen of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, discarded much of the Rafinesque herbarium and sent the remainder to Paris where it remains today as the Herbier Durand in the Herbier National de Paris at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.- History :The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution...
.
Those plants that Baldwin gave to Darlington are now in the Darlington Herbarium at Westchester University of Pennsylvania. Those that he gave to James Edward Smith are in the Smithian Herbarium at Kew Gardens, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Other plants attributed to Baldwin are at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
Herbarium and at the herbarium of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 127 acres , is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site nestled into hills near the San Gabriel Mountains, at 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA...
.
The historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Ronald L. Stuckey has found that Thomas Nuttall, Stephen Elliott, Asa Gray, John Torrey, and Constantine Rafinesque together published at least 109 new species based on material provided by William Baldwin. Twelve of these descriptions were actually written by Baldwin, and published by Stephen Elliott in Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia. Muhlenberg did not record where his specimens came from, but it is known that Baldwin sent him many. James Edward Smith also described new species from material sent by Baldwin.
Honors
As with nearly everyone who has contributed greatly to botany, there were plants named after William Baldwin. Thomas Nuttall named the genus BalduinaBalduina
Balduina, population 42,000, is an urban area that belongs to the Municipio XIX of the commune of Rome, and to the fourteenth borough of the city,...
for him in 1818, deriving the name from a Latinization of "Baldwin". At the bottom of the page where Balduina is described, we find the footnote:
-
- "Dedicated as a just tribute of respect for the talents and industry of William
- Baldwyn(sic), M.D., late of Savannah, in Georgia: a gentleman whose botanical zeal
- and knowledge has rarely been excelled in America."
The insertion of the footnote is a bit of a mystery, since the book was published the year before Baldwin died.
John Torrey and Asa Gray changed Balduina to Baldwinia in 1840, but this orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
was not generally accepted. Balduina is now a conserved name.
Balduina is a genus of three species native to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain. Not all authors have put them in one genus and they have had various names, but a revision
Revision
Revision is the process of revising.More specifically, it may refer to:* Update, a modification of software or a database* Revision control, the management of changes to sets of computer files* Belief revision...
of Asteraceae
Asteraceae
The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...
in 2007 placed all three of these species together in Balduina.
Several species of plants have been named for William Baldwin. Among those names that are still in use, we have, including authors, the following names: Eleocharis
Eleocharis
Eleocharis is a genus of 250 or more species of flowering plants in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. They are known commonly as spikerushes, although spikesedges is a more technically appropriate name and most scientists who study them in earnest refer to them as such...
baldwinii (John Torrey) Alvan Wentworth Chapman
Alvan Wentworth Chapman
Alvan Wentworth Chapman was an American physician and botanist who wrote Flora of the Southern United States, the first comprehensive description of US plants in any region beyond the northeastern states.-Education:...
, Rhynchospora
Rhynchospora
Rhynchospora is a genus of about 250-300 species of sedges with a cosmopolitan distribution. The genus includes both annual and perennial species, mostly with erect 3-sided stems and 3-ranked leaves...
baldwinii Asa Gray, Saccharum baldwinii Curt Sprengel, Clematis
Clematis
Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners beginning with Clematis × jackmanii, a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese...
baldwinii John Torrey and Asa Gray, Paronychia
Paronychia
The nail disease paronychia , commonly misidentified as a synonym for whitlow or felon, is an often-tender bacterial or fungal hand infection or foot infection where the nail and skin meet at the side or the base of a finger or toenail...
baldwinii (Torrey and Gray) Eduard Fenzl
Eduard Fenzl
Eduard Fenzl was an Austrian botanist.An obituary notes "[h]e was Professor of Botany and Director of the Imperial Botanical Cabinet, a member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, and Vice-President of the Vienna Horticultural Society."...
and Wilhelm Walpers
Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers
Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Walp. when citing a botanical name.-Works:*Repertorium botanices systematicæ...
, Eryngium
Eryngium
Eryngium is a genus in the family Apiaceae of about 230 species of annuals and perennials with hairless and usually spiny leaves, and dome-shaped umbels of flowers resembling those of thistles. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the centre of diversity in South America. Some species...
baldwinii Curt Sprengel, Vernonia
Vernonia
Vernonia is a genus of about 1000 species of forbs and shrubs in the family Asteraceae. Some species are known as Ironweed. Some species are edible and of economic value. They are known for having intense purple flowers. The genus is named for English botanist William Vernon. There are numerous...
baldwinii John Torrey, Xyris
Xyris
Xyris is the botanical name of a genus of flowering plants in the Yellow-eyed-grass family. The genus counts over two hundred fifty species, with the center of distribution in the Guianas....
baldwiniana Josef Schultes
Josef August Schultes
Josef August Schultes 1773-1831 was an Austrian botanist and professor in Vienna. Together with Johann Jacob Roemer, he published the 16th edition of Linnaeus' Systema Vegetabilium. In 1821, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Father of Julius Hermann...
, and Matelea
Matelea
Matelea is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. It contains about 200 species, which are commonly known as milkvines.-Selected species:-Formerly placed here:...
baldwyniana (Robert Sweet
Robert Sweet (botanist)
Robert Sweet was an English botanist, horticulturist and ornithologist.Born at Cockington near Torquay, Devonshire, England in 1783, Sweet worked as a gardener from the age of sixteen, and became foreman or partner in a series of nurseries. He was associated with nurseries at Stockwell, Fulham...
) Robert Woodson.
At least six other plants, including Fimbristylis
Fimbristylis
Fimbristylis is a genus of sedges. A plant in this genus may be known commonly as a fimbry, fimbristyle, or fringe-rush. There are 200 to 300 species distributed worldwide. Several continents have native species but many have been introduced to regions where they are not native. Many are...
annua, Dichanthelium
Dichanthelium
Dichanthelium is genus of plants of the grass family , often known as Rosette grass.The genus Dichanthelium is only weakly distinguished from the genus Panicum, and some believe it should be included in it.- Species :...
ensifolium, Ptelea trifoliata, Silene
Silene
Silene is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Common names include campion and catchfly....
catesbaei, Symphyotrichum
Symphyotrichum
Symphyotrichum is a genus of about 90 species of herbaceous annual and perennial plants in the composite family that were formerly treated within the genus Aster. The majority are endemic in North America, but several species also occur in the West Indies, Central and South America, as well as in...
undulatum, and Viguiera
Viguiera
Viguiera is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae. It contains around 150 species, which are commonly known as goldeneye and native to the New World...
(Rhysolepis
Rhysolepis
Rhysolepis is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....
) anchusifolia have had names that honored Baldwin, but these are no longer in use.
External links
- Some American Medical Botanists
- The Botanists of Philadelphia
- Genera of North American Plants
- William Baldwin Personal Papers At: Archives and Manuscripts At: Mertz Library At: New York Boanical Garden
- William Baldwin Personal Papers At: Gray Herbarium Archives At: Botany Libraries At: Harvard University Herbarium
- Rhynchospora in unstudied collection
- A Flora of North America:
- Weakley's Flora At: The University of North Carolina Herbarium
- Flora of North America At: eFloras.org