NOTES ON ALABAMA PLANTS 105 
rooted. Two scattered scapes were picked up and preserved, 
more as a matter of curiosity than for any special scientific 
purpose. The fatal incident, instead of lessening, rather stim- 
ulated my interest in the plant. A search to re-discover the 
plant was immediately undertaken and renewed a few times 
later, without success. I also desired to learn the name either 
of this particular plant, or at least of one closely akin. 
Since the Botanical Department of the College did not exist 
in those days, I appealed to the librarian of the College, 
through whose courtesy I became supplied with the fifth 
edition of Gray’s Manual of Botany. Owing to my ignorance 
of elementary botany, I was unable to master the arrange- 
ment of its contents. I succeeded however, in satisfying my 
desire; for, the text on Schweinitza odorata appeared to rep- 
resent a plausibly fitting description for the plant of Brother 
Knapke’s discovery. Thus the first phase concerning the 
newly discovered plant came to an end. 
On October 25th, 1905, a tuft of several scapes was dis- 
covered by Mr. Gamer and delivered to me. A few weeks 
later (November 23rd) an undergraduate of the College, now. 
Rev. Bede Knapke, discovered a few other groups. The dis- 
covery was promptly reported to me, and stimulated a new 
impetus in the study. In both cases the plant, including 
flower buds, were found grown to almost the same degree of 
development as those discovered in 1901. This fact supported 
the assumption that the plant might truly represent a fall- 
flowering species. My interest was aroused in this new direc- 
tion and, in order to obtain conclusive data on the point in 
question, I determined to make the plant the object of contin- 
uous observation. One group was taken home and trans- 
planted in a secure place in the open ground. The others were 
left in their native habitat with the intention to visit the place 
frequently. No result was obtained, however, for the plants 
in the native haunt, as well as the transplanted one sooner 
or later died. Most probably, with present-day knowledge 
concerning the plant’s behavior towards the- factors of its 
surroundings, the failure could have been avoided. On De- 
cember 28th, 1909, an insignificant tuft (three scapes) was 
found by the original discoverer, N. Knapke. When the re- 
