EXPLORATIONS OF PETERS, BEAUMONT, AND NEVIUS. 17 



THOMAS MINOTT PETEES. 



Thomas Minott Peters, of New England parentage, but a graduate 

 of the L'niversity of Alabama, was engaged in the practice of law 

 until his death, June 14, 1888. He served his State as a representa- 

 tive in the legislative assembly and afterwards as a State senator. In 

 1861) he was appointed a judge of the supreme court for a term of six 

 years. In his love for botany he found recreation from his profes- 

 sional duties, and his greatest enjoyment was to wander through the 

 adjacent mountains in search of plants. The study of lichens and 

 fungi attracted him particularly, and he was one of the few mycolo- 

 gists working in the Southern field along with Curtis and Ravenel. Of 

 his zeal and activity in this line the long list of Southern fungi of his 

 contribution, published by M. A. Curtis and Berkeley, bears ample 

 testimony. He was also a close observer and accurate student of the 

 plants of higher orders. He first brought to light the delicate and 

 extremely rare fern, Trichomanes petei^sii^ described by Gray, with 

 others like it hidden in the dark recesses of rocky defiles and the so- 

 called '' rock houses." He gave close attention to the species of Carex, 

 furnishing the investigators of this difiicult genus with material from 

 a region unknown to botanists. In acknowledgment of the services 

 rendered him, Boott, of London, one of the first authors on these plants, 

 presented him with a copy of his magnificent work. Illustrations of 

 the Genus Carex. These classical and valuable volumes Judge Peters 

 bequeathed to the University of Alabama, his alma mater, together 

 with his mycological herbarium and collection of Carices, all mounted 

 and labeled. In 1880 the writer had the privilege of enjoying the 

 company of this venerable botanist during his inA^estigations of the 

 forests in Lawrence and Winston counties, and also received from him 

 much valuable information on the mountain flora of the State, made 

 use of in the present work. 



BEAUMONT, NEVIUS, AND RECENT COLLECTORS. 



John F. Beaumont, of German extraction, was born in Pennsylva- 

 nia in 1825. Judge Peters speaks of Beaumont as a man of a fair clas- 

 sical education, an enthusiastic student of botany, and a contributor to 

 our knowledge of Alabama plants who, following his own example, 

 became the active correspondent of Tuckerman and the other botanists 

 already named. After some years spent as a missionary in Africa, he 

 returned to Alabama, where he taught school. He died at Troy about 

 the close of the civil war. He discovered that interesting grass, 

 Luziola alahamensis^ first described in Chapman's Flora (18()()). 



The Rev. R. D. Nevius collected plants in 1853-54 in the vicinity of 

 Tuscaloosa. He is the discoverer of the singular shrub Neviusia, named 

 15894 2 



