Dr. Charles Mohr 601 



drug business in Mobile, Ala., which continued to be his home till 



his removal to Asheville, N. C, about two years before his 

 death. 



During the Civil War his business suffered greatly, but he was 

 employed by the Confederate government in the manufacture of 

 drugs from native resources, and in testing the medicinal prepara- 

 tions smuggled into the country from Europe. After the close of 

 the war he set to work with vigor to build up his business which 

 soon became profitable. With returning prosperity his enthusiasm 

 for botany revived, and he devoted all his leisure time, first to the 

 investigation of the mosses of his district, instigated thereto by his 

 friend Lesquereux, to whose work on "The Mosses of North 

 America" he contributed no mean share. In these studies the 

 ferns were also included, and his notes and observations thereon 

 were given to Eaton for his " Ferns of North America." 



Observations and collections in the other provinces of botany 

 and forestry were by no means neglected, and frequent excursions 



• * 



into the swamps and fields accessible to him gave him that wide 

 and accurate acquaintance with the whole flora of his section that 

 niade him easily first of the botanists of the South and the peer of 

 any in the land. 



His active mind was not content with botanical studies only, 

 for we find him undertaking, in the interest of the " Grangers," all 

 kinds of laborious investigations of the fertilizing values of native 

 products such as the ashes of pine straw, of the various woods, of 

 cotton seed hulls, etc., and in delivering lectures and writing arti- 

 cles on subjects connected with the improvement of the exhausted 

 soils of the state, and the betterment of agricultural practice. 



He also made excursions into the mineral sections of the state, 

 especially into the gold region, enlarging at the same time his col- 

 lections and observations on plant distribution and forestry. 



From about 1878 the results of these investigations began to 

 be made public in a series of articles, at first practical and economic 

 °nly, afterwards more strictly scientific and specialized, but always 

 directed toward the imparting of useful knowledge to his fellow- 

 me n. As with his collections, primarily intended to illustrate some 

 feature of our natural resources, they grew in breadth and com- 

 pleteness until they became illustrative of monographs. 



