Camellia japonica, Cryplomeria japonica, Ilex 

 crenata, Juniperus chinensis, Lagerstroemia 

 indica, Ligustrumjaponicum, L. lucidum. Magnolia 

 denudata, Rhododendron (many species), 

 Temstroemia gymnanthera, Wisteria jlorihunda, 

 and W. sinensis.. 



From a horticultural perspective, the southeast- 

 ern United States is one of the most interesting 

 areas in the country. The oldest landscaped 

 gardens in the United States, dating from the late 

 17th and early 18th centuries, are found in 

 Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Since 

 plants follow people, we know that many of the 

 earlier introductions were brought by European 

 immigrants to their new homes in America. 

 Early plantation life in the southern colonies 

 promoted an interest in the cash crops of to- 

 bacco, rice, and indigo. By the end of the 17th 

 century, ornamental plants such as boxwood 

 (Buxus sempervirens) and garden flowers intro- 

 duced from Europe were cultivated. The gardens 

 at Middleton Place near Charleston, SC, date 

 from about 1 730 as one of the oldest landscaped 

 gardens in America. About the same period, the 

 earliest nurseries were established in Charleston. 

 The first plant-introduction garden in America, 

 called the "Founders Garden," was established at 

 Savannah soon after the founding of the Georgia 

 colony in 1733 by James Oglethorpe. 



It is recorded that about 20 to 25 exotic trees and 

 shrubs were already in cultivation in gardens at 

 Williamsburg, VA, by the middle of the 18th 

 century, including cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), 

 fig (Ficus carica), littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata), 

 weeping willow (Salix babylonica), and the com- 

 mon lilac (Syringa vulgaris). At the same time, 

 about 80 species of native American trees and 

 shrubs were cultivated at Williamsburg, includ- 

 ing flowering dogwood (Cornus jlorida) , American 

 beech (Fagus grandifolia). common catalpa 

 (Catalpa bignonioides). red buckeye (Aesculus 

 pavia), Carolina cherry laurel (Prunus 

 caroliniana), southern live oak (Quercus 

 virginiana). and American holly (Ilex opaca). 



The introduction of the parasol tree (Firmiana 

 simplex) about 1780 at Charleston, SC, is attrib- 

 uted to Andre Michaux, a French plant explorer 

 who lived near Charleston. American ships 

 returning from China often landed at Charleston, 

 and Michaux may have obtained seeds of the 

 parasol tree from one of these ships. From the 

 evidence at hand, it is doubtful that the common 

 camellia (C. japonica) came directly to America on 

 board a ship returning from the Orient. Michaux 



probably did not introduce the camellia to 

 Middleton Place in 1785 as long assumed. We 

 have identified one of the four original plants 

 attributed to him on this site as C. japonica 

 Anemoniflora', a cultivar that only reached 

 England in the first decade of the 19th century 

 and was illustrated in Curtis' s Botanical Maga- 

 zine, t. 1654, 1814. It is more likely that the 

 camellias at Middleton Place reached America 

 from Great Britain after 1814 and not earlier. 



Categories of Ligneous Plants in 

 the Catalog 



Trees 



The distinction between trees and shrubs is often 

 controversial from various points of view. No two 

 definitions totally agree. We know that some 

 shrubs become treelike under certain growing 

 conditions. A tree, by standard dictionary defini- 

 tion, is a perennial woody plant usually having a 

 single self-supporting trunk and ranging in 

 height from 10 to more than 300 feet. Many 

 trees fit this definition, but others do not. Indig- 

 enous species such as Cornus Jlorida and Vibur- 

 num prunijolium rarely attain the stature of a tree 

 in their native woodland habitats, but in an open 

 sunny location these same species often become 

 treelike. In another example, the red buckeye 

 (Aesculus pavia) may grow to 30 feet as a single- 

 trunked tree in the open but not more than a 

 shrub 5 to 6 feet high in a woodland setting. 



Examples of indigenous trees of the southeastern 

 United States, with their maximum height, 

 include: 



Acer saccharinum, silver maple, 70 ft 

 Aesculus Jlava, yellow buckeye, 70 ft 

 Fagus grandifolia, American beech, 70 ft 

 Fraxinus americana, American ash, 80 ft 

 Ilex opaca, American holly, 100 ft 

 Liriodendron tulipifera, yellow poplar, tulip 



tree, 100 ft 

 Magnolia grandijlora, southern magnolia, 90 ft 

 Magnolia macrophylla, bigleaf magnolia, 50 ft 

 Platanus occidentalis, American sycamore, 80 ft 

 Quercus alba, white oak, 70 ft 

 Quercus phellos, willow oak, 70 ft 

 Quercus velutina, black oak, 70 ft 

 Quercus virginiana, southern live oak, 70 ft. 



