and a naval officer named charles wilks became the commander of this expedition and wilks was a relatively junior officer that he -- at the time. he had a fleet of four ships and for four years, he explore the pacific from as far north as alaska and as far south as antarctica and crisscrossing all over the ocean in between. wilks was a surveyor. most interested in mapping. if you look on maps of antarctica, you will find a wliksland, named after him as he was the first surveyor to survey several islands and a section of antarctica. unlike some more famous expeditions of natural history for example charles darwin there was no trained naturalist along with wilks, nor was there an understanding that part of the expedition was to catalog all kinds of things that were seen. so, artifacts and plants, both living and dried were collected during the four year expedition. in fact, they collected close to 10,000 dried plant specimens between 1838 and 1842 which had their own wonderful history and became part of the national herbarium in the smithsonian. also, they collected over 150 living plants. i

permanent institution in 1842 when the united states exploring expedition, also sometimes called the wilkes expedition, returned from a four-year voyage in the pacific ocean at the behest of congress, mainly doing some surveying, but also picking up a whole bunch of natural science artifacts, including living plant specimens. in 1842, with the expedition returned, they had 150 fascinating tropical plant species, many of which had never before been on the american continent. this was deemed very valuable. this collection of plants was immediately recognized as important by congress. funds were appropriated for a temporary greenhouse structure to house them while a permanent garden could be built. we still have to this day a couple of plants that are direct descendents of those plants. the cycads we just looked at, the one on the left is one of the original plants. subsequent to its introduction to the united states, it has become a relatively important tree species in terms of ornamental tree in the tropical parts of the united states, and specifically in southern florida. as with most things in life i