EASLEY — At February’s special event meeting of the SC Native Plant Society, Dr. Patrick McMillan will present a “rediscovery” of the legacy of Mark Catesby’s early explorations in the Carolinas.

McMillan is host and co-creator of the Emmy-award winning ETV nature program, Expeditions with Patrick McMillan. The presentation will begin at 7 p.m., with a reception following on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at the Easley High School auditorium. The public is invited.

“Have you ever wondered what natural really is? What is truly Carolinian? What our Piedmont was like 300 years ago? An exciting joint project of the SC Botanical Garden and Furman University, Botanica Caroliniana is helping us answer some of these intriguing questions,” McMillan said.

Catesby, an intrepid explorer and naturalist, arrived in South Carolina in 1722 and spent more than two years traveling far beyond the English settlements, documenting and describing the marvels of the wild interior of Carolina. His “Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands” is well-known for its dazzling illustrations and tales, but this is only part of the story. The collections sent back to England now reside at Oxford.

McMillan will take guests back in time to examine a Carolina that most of us would find quite foreign today and learn just how powerful our choices are in transforming the world around us.