PREFACE 
The following description of the plant life of Alabama is the result 
of nearly forty years of sojourn and wanderings through the State, 
during which all parts were visited and the collections were made that 
serve as a basis of this work. 
The writer has attempted more than has been usual in the descrip- 
tive works and the various floras of regions or States of this continent. 
He thought it not sufficient to give merely an enumeration of the 
plants known to be indigenous, together with those which are known 
as immigrants growing without cultivation in the State, and to supple- 
ment such enumeration with notes on geographical distribution and 
habitat, but he has attempted a deeper study, that of the relations of 
plant life in the field; that is, of its ecological conditions. 
In this attempt the work of Merriam on the life zones and areas 
of the North American continent north of Mexico' and Willkomm’s 
‘*Grundzuege der Pflanzenverbreitung auf der iberischen Halbinsel 
(Leipzig, 1896),” have served as a general basis in respect to the dis- 
tribution of plant life over wide geographical areas and limited regions 
embraced within them. 
The writer has been especially fortunate in having been able to con- 
sult, before the completion of his task, the classic work of Warming,” 
which may be considered as laying down for the frst time, in a sys- 
tematic manner, the principles of plant ecology. While these prin- 
ciples had been more or less foreshadowed by other writers, they 
were enunciated by Warming with such logical precision as to Inaugu- 
rate a new departure in the study of plant life. 
Since these methods of viewing plant life have not yet become 
familiar to most students of botany, it has seemed necessary to discuss 
them somewhat in detail in the introductory part of this volume. It 
is hoped that by describing the plant associations to be found in the 
different localities, not only the primary object of a floral work as a 
part of a geological survey will be subserved, but a new interest will 
be added to the study of botany, both for the botanist and the thought- 
ful layman, which may enable them to use the volume for practical 
purposes. 
‘See p. 29. _ 
2Dr. E. Warming, Lehrbuch der Oekologischen Pflanzengeographie, German 
edition of Dr. E. Knoblauch, Berlin, 1896. 
