The appointment, with its accompanying annual stipend of fifty pounds, enabled Bartram to make a long-hoped-for collecting expedition "to the Floridas ." Accompanied by his son William, John traveled through present-day North and South Carolina , Georgia and Florida , where he focused his primary attention on the St. Johns River near St. Augustine . Near Pierson , Florida , a huge live oak tree shaded Spaulding's Upper Store where the Bartram's would dispatch their findings. Today, the tree is noted with a historical marker attesting to the Bartram's visits.