42 THE AMERICAN BOTANISl^ 



those parts before, and many of the plants were nnknown 

 to science at the time he first saw them. At first he sent his 

 novelties to Northern botanists to be studied and described, 

 but the number finally became so large and the need of a 

 manual of botany to cover the Southeastern States as Gray's 

 "Manual" did the Northeastern so evident, that in 1860 he 

 published a "Flora of the Southern United States," a work of 

 over 600 pages, which remained the standard for the territory 

 it covered for many years. Supplements were added to it in 

 1883 and 1892 to incorporate the notes and specimens sent in 

 by botanists all over the South, as well as Dr. Chapman's own 

 subsequent discoveries, and finally a completely revised edition 

 was published in 1897 in the author's eighty-eightli year. 



In these four books he described about 100 new species 

 of plants, most of which were discovered by himself in Georgia 

 arid Florida. But for his extreme modesty and conservatism 

 he might have described many more. The number of species 

 discovered by him and described by others would probably 

 bring the total of his discoveries pretty close to 200, a record 

 which has seldom if ever been equaled in the North Temperate 

 Zone. One genus of plants and at least a dozen species bear 

 his name. 



Orris Root. — The orris root so familiar to lovers of 

 perfumes should really be called iris root since it is made from 

 the roots, or rather rootstocks, of several species of iris, espe- 

 cially Iris Germanica the common blue flag of the gardens and 

 Iris Florentina a white variety. It is reported that the root 

 has to be dried and preserved for some time before the fra- 

 grance is fully developed. The freshly dug plants have no 

 fragrance. 



