PREFACE. 



The following description of the plant life of Alabama is the result 

 of nearly forty years of sojourn and wanderings through the State, 

 during which all parts were visited and the collections were made that 

 serve as a basis of this w r ork. 



The writer has attempted more than has been usual in the descrip- 

 tive works and the various floras of regions or States of this continent. 

 He thought it not sufficient to give merely an enumeration of the 

 plants known to be indigenous, together with those which are known 

 as immigrants growing without cultivation in the State, and to supple- 

 ment such enumeration with notes on geographical distribution and 

 habitat, but he has attempted a deeper study, that of the relations of 

 plant life in the field; that is, of its ecological conditions. 



In this attempt the work of Merriam on the life zones and areas 

 of the North American continent north of Mexico 1 and Willkomm's 

 "Grundzuege der Pflanzenverbreitung auf der iberischen Halbinsel 

 (Leipzig, 1896)," have served as a general basis in respect to the dis- 

 tribution of plant life over wide geographical areas and limited regions 

 embraced within them. 



The writer has been especially fortunate in having been able to con- 

 sult, before the completion of his task, the classic work of Warming, 2 

 which may be considered as laying down for the first time, in a sys- 

 tematic manner, the principles of plant ecology. While these prin- 

 ciples had been more or less foreshadowed by other writers, they 

 were enunciated by Warming with such logical precision as to inaugu- 

 rate a new departure in the study of plant life. 



Since these methods of viewing plant life have not yet become 

 familiar to most students of botany, it has seemed necessary to discuss 

 them somewhat in detail in the introductory part of this volume. It 

 is hoped that by describing the plant associations to be found in the 

 different localities, not only the primary object of a floral work as a 

 part of a geological survey will be subserved, but a new interest will 

 be added to the study of botany, both for the botanist and the thought- 

 ful layman, which may enable them to use the volume for practical 

 purposes. 



1 See p. 29. 



2 Dr. E. Warming, Lehrbuch der Oekologischen Pflanzengeographie, German 

 edition of Dr. E. Knoblauch, Berlin, 1896. 



