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Collectors of the UNC Herbarium
Charles Edward Raynal
(1877-1944)
Information compiled by Lisa Giencke, August 2006.
Vita and photograph provided by Dudley J. Raynal, grandson of Charles
E. Raynal.
| The NCU
Herbarium has currently databased about 10 specimens collected
by Charles E. Raynal between 1932 and 1939. Half are from Statesville,
where he was a Presbyterian minister, and several of the others
are from a collecting trip he made with H. R. Totten in May 1938. |
Charles E. Raynal with big-leaf magnolia
(Magnolia macrophylla) |
Vita
Charles Edward Raynal was born
on March 17, 1877 in Savannah, Georgia, son of Pierre Napolean
Raynal of Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, Alsace, France and his wife
Rebecca Ann Girardeau of Liberty County, Georgia. Educated
in private schools, he attended Southwestern Presbyterian
University, Clarksville, Tennessee (BA, BD, 1903) and Princeton
University and Theological Seminary Princeton, New Jersey
(1903 - 1904). Awarded Doctor of Divinity degree by Davidson
College, Davidson, North Carolina, 1914.
Ordained in the ministry
by Northern Alabama Presbytery, he served as Assistant Pastor,
First Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama (1904-1907);
Pastor of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, North
Carolina (1907-1909) and Pastor, First Presbyterian Church,
Statesville, North Carolina (1909-1944). Married Margaret
Mayo Scott, 1914. Children: four sons, one daughter. Charles
E. Raynal died December 1, 1944.
A botanist by avocation, Charles E. Raynal acquired a substantial
botanical library including many first edition copies of works
by Carolina Botanists. He botanized widely in the Carolinas
(frequently when in South Carolina with Dr. F. Dudley Jones,
his close personal friend and fellow Presbyterian minister).
He corresponded on many occasions with Dr. J. K. Small of
the New York Botanical Garden and sent specimens for identification
and verification to Dr. Small. He was an avid student of woody
plants, both native and ornamental, and wrote several papers
of botanical interest, some of which were published. He was
a committed conservationist, a fact reflected both in his
collection of scientific articles, pamphlets, on books and
in his own writings.
(Written by Dudley J. Raynal, January, 1980)
Among the woody species that caught
Raynal's attention was a North Carolina state-level rare species,
Magnolia macrophylla (see picture above). His first
herbarium specimen sent to NCU is of a branch and some
petals of that species collected in May 1932. Raynal apparently
led a collecting trip later that year to show two known locations
of the plant to William Chambers Coker. Raynal also sent live
specimens to Coker and his research assistant, Alma Holland
Beers, which each planted in their yards in Chapel Hill. The
tree planted in Beer's yard in the Gimghoul neighborhood in
the 1930s still grows there today, and many mature trees can
be found naturalized in nearby Battle Park.
Selected Publications
Raynal, Charles E (1928)
Friend of Man - The Tree Speaks. American Forests and Forest
Life 34: 290-291.
Raynal, Charles E. (1938)
Bigleaf Magnolia. American Forests 44: 204-206.
  
Curriculum North Carolina UNC
In Ecology Botanical Garden Biology Department
University of North Carolina
Herbarium
CB# 3280, Coker Hall
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280
phone: (919) 962-6931
fax: (919) 962-6930
email: herbarium@bio.unc.edu
Last Updated: 6 September
2006 |
