IV LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



cording to the most modern system of classification, with the 

 synonymy of each species most carefully and conscientiously 

 worked out, with the type locality, a iid full notes of its occur- 

 rences in Alabama. 



The amount of labor and learning involved in this can be 

 appreciated by the few only who have had similar work to do. 

 The preliminary chapters on the floral regions of the State, 

 and the geographical distribution of our native plants, their 

 modes of association and adaptations, embodying all the latest 

 results of botanical study, will interest and instruct even the 

 specialist. 



Foreseeing the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of having 

 a book of so technical a character as "Plant Life" brought out 

 under our supervision alone, and knowing that the authori- 

 ties of the Department of Agriculture, through Dr. Mohr, had 

 become interested in the work, it was proposed by me that the 

 first publication should be undertaken by that Department, 

 with the understanding that an edition for the Alabama Geo- 

 logical Survey should be printed at the same time with that for 

 the Department, each edition to have its appropriate title page 

 and letter of transmittal. This proposition was accepted, and 

 we desire here to acknowledge our obligations to the Division 

 of Botany and to Mr. Coville and the others who have rendered 

 such signal aid in bringing out the book. In view of the un- 

 timely death of the author, we realize that we have been for- 

 tunate in having this aid, without which the book would not 

 have been printed during his lifetime, and could not have re- 

 ceived his last revisions. 



It has been thought proper and desirable in this Survey edi- 

 tion to add a short biographical sketch of Dr. Mohr, condensed 

 from the Phar mace at lactic Rundschau, together with his port- 

 rait and that of another man whose name will ever be honor- 

 ably associated with Alabama botany, Judge Thomas Minott 

 Peters. 



Respectfully, 



EUGENE A. SMITH, 



State Geologist. 



