Henry William Ravenel, who was one of the foremost botanists of the American Civil War era, spent part of his life in Aiken.
Herrick Brown will talk about the respected scientist during the Aiken County Historical Society's spring general meeting at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Aiken County Historical Museum. A reception will follow.
Brown is an assistant botanist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources' Heritage Trust Program.
He also serves as the assistant curator of the University of South Carolina's A. C. Moore Herbarium and is a consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities project Plants and Planter: Henry William Ravenel and the Convergence of Science and Agriculture in the 19th Century South.
"This will be the first time we have had a program on Mr. Ravenel, and it should be very interesting," said Allen Riddick, president of the Historical Society.
"Not many people in Aiken today know much about him."
Born in 1814 near the South Carolina coast, Ravenel was especially interested in cryptogams, which are plants or plant-like organisms such as ferns, mosses, algae and fungi that reproduce by spores and don't produce flowers or seeds.
He also was a serious collector of vascular plants.
Ravenel and his family moved from the Lowcountry to Aiken in 1853 to escape the risk of malaria. He died in 1887 and is buried in St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church's cemetery.
There is no charge to attend the spring meeting, and it is open to the public.
The Historical Museum is at 433 Newberry Street S.W.