LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



University of Alabama, 



August 1, 1901. 

 To His ExcGllencij, William D.Jclks, Governor of Alabama: 



Sir — I liave tlie lionor to transmit herewith a report on 

 "Plant Life of Alabama," by Charles Mohr, Ph.D., with the 

 recommendation that it be published as one of the reports of 

 the Geological Surve3\ In compliance with the requirements 

 of the law organizing the survey, which makes it the duty of 

 the State Geologist to ju'epare reports on the Geological, Ag- 

 ricultural and other natural resources of the State, and in ac- 

 cordance with the plan outlined in my first report, 1871, this 

 volume has been prepared hy the one man in the State compe- 

 tent . to do it. Dr. Mohr in his introduction beyond, 

 has given a historical sketch of the origin and pro- 

 gress of the investigations which have led up to the 

 X)resent report, and to this sketch I will add that" in 1880 we 

 imblished a list of our combined collections, under the title 

 "A Preliminary List of the Plants Growing Without Cultiva- 

 tion in Alabama." In this list were enumerated about 1,500 

 species and varieties of flowering x)lants and ferns. How much 

 has been added since that time through Dr. Mohr's efforts 

 may be seen by comparison with the list in "Plant Life." 



The present volume — according to our plan, the first part of 

 a comprehensive report on the Botanical Resources of 

 Alabama — is a classified catalogue of our indigenous 

 and naturalized flora. The second part of this re- 

 port, on the Economic Botany of the State, to the irre- 

 parable loss to science in general and to the State in particu- 

 lar, the author did not live to complete. This proposed vol- 

 ume was to have been a classified and descriptive catalogue of 

 all our plants useful for timber, for ornament, for forage and 

 food purposes, for medicinal use, for perfumery, etc., as well 

 as of those undesirable because of their interference with de- 

 sirable growths or of their poisonous or other deleterious 

 qualities. Such a book would have been of service to a very 

 large number of our citizens, and we can only bewail the un- 

 timely death of the gifted man who alone of our acquaintance 

 possessed the qualifications needed for such a work. 



It will be seen that the present volume is far more than a 

 bare list of our native plants, for, even considered merely as 

 a catalogue, it has the merit of presenting the plants ac- 



