1922] A Botanical Bonanza in Tuscaloosa County 155 



potash-loving species."* Some of the species are noteworthy for being 

 confined to Alabama, or more abundant in this state than anywhere 

 else. Others here reach their southern limits or nearly so, and were 

 not recorded from this part of the state by Dr. Charles Mohr in his 

 magnum opus, the Plant Life of Alabama (published shortly after his 

 death in 1901). 



Comparatively little botanical work of permanent value has been 

 done in the vicinity of Tuscaloosa. Sir Charles Lyell, the eminent 

 English geologist, visited the town in 1846, and published a few botan- 

 ical observations in his "Second Visit to the United States." A few 

 years later Drs. K. D. Nevius and W, S. Wyman botanized in this 

 vicinity in spare moments, but the only recorded result of their work 

 seems to be the discovery of Neviusia Alabaniensis and Sedum Nevii^. 

 Dr. Eugene A. Smith, state geologist from 1873 to the present time, 

 devoted considerable attention to plants in the first few years of his 

 service at the University of Alabama, and collected many specimens, 

 quite a number of which are cited in IMohr's Plant Life of Alabama. 

 Dr. Mohr, although he visited Tuscaloosa occasionally, seems to have 

 done very little field work in this neighborhood, having depended 

 mainly on Dr. Smith for information about the flora of Tuscaloosa 

 County. Messrs. C. L. Pollard and W. R. Maxon of the U. S. Na- 

 tional Herbarium visited Tuscaloosa in the summer of 1900, mainly for 

 the purpose of finding Neviusia, in which however they were not suc- 

 cessful.** 



The localities described below seem to have been entirely unknown 

 to Dr. Mohr, but with good reason, for they were very inaccessible 

 during his lifetime. The locks which now make navigation possible 

 on the Warrior River for about 75 miles above the fall-line did not 

 exist then, nor did the railroad which now skirts the bluffs on the left 

 side of the river for eight or nine miles ; consequently it would have 

 been very difficult to go up the river either by boat or on foot.^ The 

 main highway from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham indeed passes within 

 a mile or two of some of the most interesting cliffs, but any one not 



« See Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 40:398. 1913. , , , 



^ The writer liad the pleasure of meetintc botli of these eeutlemen toward the close of 

 their lives, the former on his last visit to Tusraloosa in 1913, and the latter a year or 

 two earlier. 



«See Plant World 3:136. 1900; 9:105. 1906. 



' Since these lines were written Dr. Smith has informed me that about 2.) years ago 

 he went with Dr. Mohr and John Muir in a small steamer a few miles up the river, probably 

 to the first shoal above Tuscaloosa, which must have brought them pretty close to some of 

 the cliffs here described; but thev did not land there, and thus a wonderful opportunity was 

 missed. (Pinus Tirginmna, which abounds on top of the bluffs down to within about four 

 miles of the city, is not reported from this or any adjoining county in Mohr's Plant Life 

 of Alabama.) 



