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How did a misspelling on a map name a tree?

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The Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha Marshall) did not get named quite what John and William Bartram intended. A number of things are strange about the name. Franklinia was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, a close friend of John Bartram. The species epithet, alatamaha was to be the name of the river, Altamaha, where the tree was discovered in 1765.

Bust of Benjamin Franklin
(1706-90) 1778 (terracotta)
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Buy this Giclee Print at AllPosters.com

Some botanists feel the proper botanical name should read: Franklinia alatamaha Bartram ex Marshall. So why is someone's name attached to the end of the Latinized name? This name, the authority, is the person (or persons) who applied a botanical name to the plant. In this case, John Bartram suggested the name, but his cousin Humphry Marshall published the name and original description of the plant.

But the intended species epithet, altamaha, was misspelled on the map that either Bartram or Marshall had, alatamaha. So the name was published with the misspelling and by botanical rules, 'tis now cast in stone.

Bartram's name is not frequently seen attached, because in later years Charles S. Sargent, the founding director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University reclassified the Franklin tree. The botanical name became: Gordonia Alatamaha (Marsh.) Sarg.* putting the tree into the same genus as the loblolly bay.

But it was later discovered that the Franklin tree should really stand as Humphry Marshall first described it. Although similar to the loblolly bay, the Franklin tree has characteristics shared by no other tree in the Gordonia genus. So the name resorted to the first authority, Marshall.

*Botanical nomenclature usually abbreviates the authorities' names. I have chosen to spell out the person's name. This allows readers to more easily find out about the botanist who did the work on the plant, should they wish to study the subject further.

The University of Georgia has a fabulous collection of old maps. The following link goes to a map made in 1780. To understand the problems faced by early explorers like the Bartrams, click on the link:

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1780h7.jpg

The Altamaha River empties into the Atlantic somewhere between Savanah Town and Cumberland Island.

In 1775, William Bartram was hiking across western North Carolina. He wrote in his journal "...I began again to ascend the Jore Mountains, which I at length accomplished, and rested on the most elevated peak; from whence I beheld with rapture and astonishment a sublimely awful scene of power and magnificence, a world of mountains piled upon mountains."

Two hundred and two years later, eleven people formed a society to rediscover and build the trail William Bartram walked when he explored these North Carolina mountains. The trail has seven sections, one can hike the entire 80 miles or any one of the sections; mountain bikers can pedal a 14 mile bike trail or canoeists can float 9 miles of the Little Tennessee River in section 3. The trail (section 1) connects to Bartram's trail in Georgia. The trail runs to the Cheoah Mountains north of Robbinsville.

Two hundred members of the North Carolina Bartram's Trail Society keep this trail well marked and in good repair. To learn more about this society, to join, to help maintain the trail, or to spend your vacation seeing the wilds William Bartram saw, click on the link:

http://www.ncbartramtrail.org/index.htm

Maps of the trail can be ordered at http://www.ncbartramtrail.org/maps.htm

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