16 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 



v\ MITEL BOTSFOKD lil'C'KLKY. 



After the lapse of about three-quarters of a century, Samuel Bots- 

 ford Buckley followed the footsteps of Bartram in the exploration of 

 the flora of Alal>ama. Mr. Buckley was a native of New York but 

 received his education at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., 

 where he graduated in 1830. After leaving college the enthusiastic 

 young botanist was among the earliest to explore the southern Appa- 

 lachian mountains, discovering many new plants and making the study 

 of the trees his chief object. Buckley reached Alabama by the prin- 

 cipal road of travel leading from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf. Pass- 

 ing over the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains in Madison 

 County, on his journey to Alabama and pursuing his favorite occupa- 

 tion he discovered the interesting American smoke tree (fo////>/.v ooti- 

 noldes (Nutt.) Britton), before known only from a single locality in the 

 Indian Territory near the borders of Arkansas. Arriving in central 

 Alabama, he settled in Wilcox County as teacher in an advanced school 

 (about 1839). There, among the hills and vales of the Upper Division 

 of the Maritime pine belt, and near the woods and grassy glades of 

 the Central Prairie region, an inviting field was open to the botanist. 

 In the prairie region he discovered that fine tree of the white-oak 

 group named by him QuerouB dumndii (Q. brevilola (Torr.) Sar- 

 gent), and in the hills, Thatictrwn debile, besides a host of other inter- 

 esting plants heretofore unknown from the Southern States. He 

 described his ifrscoveries in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Science. Working without the advantage of a large 

 botanical library he met with severe criticism; but many of his new 

 species which at the time were not regarded as valid have now 

 received their deserved recognition. In 1866 Buckley was appointed 

 State geologist of Texas, and, continuing his botanical studies, he 

 enjoyed ample opportunities for discovering many undescribed plants. 

 He never lost his interest in botan}^, and his last years were devoted to 

 fruit raising and horticulture at Austin, Tex., where he died in 188tt. 

 Buckleya, a remarkable shrub of the North Carolina mountains, com- 

 memorates Buckley's zealous efforts in the cause of Southern botany. 



HEZEK1AH GATES. 



Dr. Hezekiah Gates, a native of New England and for many years 

 a successful apothecary at Mobile, was the first collector of Alabama 

 plants from the coast region, whence he contributed valuable material 

 to Torrey and Gray for their Flora of North America, from the year 

 1836 to the early forties. He died at Mobile in 1850 (?) Prof. Asa 

 Gray dedicated to his memory the genus Gatesia, a monotypical peren- 

 nial of the Southwest, native from Alabama to eastern Texas; but 

 unfortunately the name Gatesia ha- had to be given up, having been 

 previously applied to another plant. 



