16 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA, 
SAMUEL BOTSFORD BUCKLEY. 
After the lapse of about three-quarters of a century, Samuel Bots- 
ford Buckley followed the footsteps of Bartram in the exploration of 
the flora of Alabama. Mr. Buckley was a native of New York but 
received his education at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., 
where he graduated in 1836. After leaving college the enthusiastic 
young botanist was among the earliest to explore the southern Appa- 
lachian mountains, discovering many new plants and making the study 
of the trees his chief object. Buckley reached Alabama by the prin- 
cipal road of travel leading from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf. Pass- 
ing over the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains in Madison 
County, on his journey to Alabama and pursuing his favorite occupa- 
tion he discovered the interesting American smoke tree (Cot/nus coté- 
noides (Nutt.) Britton), before known only from a single locality in the 
Indian Territory near the borders of Arkansas. Arriving in central 
Alabama, he settled in Wilcox County as teacher in an advanced school 
(about 1839). There, among the hills and vales of the Upper Division 
of the Maritime pine belt, and near the woods and grassy glades of 
the Central Prairie region, an inviting tield was open to the botanist. 
In the prairie region he discovered that fine tree of the white-oak 
group named by him Quercus durandii (Q. breviloba (Torr.) Sar- 
gent), and in the hills, 7haléetrwm debile, besides a host of other inter- 
esting plants heretofore unknown from the Southern States. He 
described his discoveries in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 
Academy of Seience. Working without the advantage of a large 
botanical library he met with severe criticism; but many of his new 
species which at the time were not regarded as valid have now 
received their deserved recognition. In L866 Buckley was appointed 
State geologist of Texas, and, continuing his botanical studies, he 
enjoyed ample opportunities for discovering many undescribed plants. 
He never lost his interest in botany, and his last years were devoted to 
fruit raising and horticulture at Austin, Tex., where he died in 1884. 
Buckleya, «a remarkable shrub of the North Carolina mountains, com- 
memorates Buckley’s zealous efforts in the cause of Southern botany. 
HEZEKIAH GATES, 
Dr. Hezekiah Gates, a native of New England and for many years 
a successful apothecary at Mobile, was the first collector of Alabama 
plants from the coast region, whence he contributed valuable material 
to Torrey and Gray for their Flora of North America, from the year 
1836 to the early forties. He died at Mobile in 1850 (4). Prof. Asa 
Gray dedicated to his memory the genus Gatesia, a monotypical peren- 
nial of the Southwest, native from Alabama to eastern Texas; but 
unfortunately the name Gatesia has had to be given up, having been 
previously applied to another plant. 
