THOMAS WALTER, BOTANIST 



By WILLIAM R. MAXON 



U. S. National Museum 



The first descriptive treatise upon the flowering plants of any 

 definite region in eastern North America, using the binomial system 

 of nomenclature, is the " Flora Caroliniana " of Thomas Walter, 

 published at London in 1788 by the famous botanical collector John 

 Fraser, at the latter's expense. This important and historically inter- 

 esting volume, the specimens upon which it is based, Walter's botanical 

 activity in South Carolina, and visits by more than one eminent botanist 

 to his secluded grave on the banks of the Santee River have been 

 the subjects of several articles, yet comparatively little is known about 

 the man himself. The present notice is written partly with the purpose 

 of bringing together scattered source references, correcting an unusual 

 and long-standing error as to the date of Walter's death, and furnishing 

 data recently obtained as to his marriages, and partly in the hope that 

 something may still be discovered as to liis extraction, education, and 

 early life and the circumstances of his removal to this country. For 

 the sake of clearness and both general and local interest these points 

 may be dealt with somewhat categorically. 



Birth and education. — Walter was a native of Hampshire, England, 

 and is known merely to have emigrated " as a young man " to South 

 Carolina, where he acquired a plantation on the banks of the Santee 

 River and passed the remainder of his short life. The date of his birth 

 has been placed doubtfully at 1740. That he was a man of very con- 

 siderable education is obvious from the text of his book, which through- 

 out is written in classical Latin, from the character of his few letters, 

 and from the testimony of his warm friend, Fraser. 



His home on the Santee. — The Walter plantation lay at the southern 

 edge of the great swamp bordering the Santee River, in the coastal 

 plain. Its location is given sometimes (probably with correctness) as 

 in St. John's Parish, sometimes as in St. Stephen's, but in any case it 

 is within the boundary of present-day Berkeley County. The date of 

 its acquisition is not known, nor whether it was obtained by purchase 

 or by original grant. Here, in this prosperous region so well described 

 by Coker, he lived during the Revolutionary period and its turbulent 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 95, No. 8 



