12 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
recent years from Prof. M. C. Wilson, of tie Normal School at Fler- 
ence. The large collections made in 1896, and in the early part of the 
following season, by the biologists of the Agricultural Experiment 
Station, under the auspices of the Biological Survey of Alabama, con- 
nected with the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn, and 
kindly submitted to the writer for examination. afforded many plants 
from localities not represented before in the Normal Herbarium, 
and from a section of the State of peculiar interest to the student of 
plant distribution, but heretofore almost unknown to botanists. They 
included a number of forms not previously observed in the State, some 
of them new to science. 
PLAN OF THE PRESENT WORK. 
In the general part of the work a short sketch of the physiographical 
features of the State precedes a chapter on the general aspect of the 
flora of Alabama, and its relation to that of adjoining States, and to 
the continental and extra-continental floras. In the paragraphs on 
geological and climatic conditions, the publications of the Geological 
Survey of the State and of Prof. P. H. Mell, in charge of the meteor- 
ological service of the State, have been depended upon. 
In the general discussion of the geographical distribution of plants, 
the principles leading Dr. Merriam to the establishment of his life 
zones on the North American Continent north of Mexico have heen 
adopted, these having already been successfully applied in the investi- 
gation of the distribution of animal as well as plant life in the part of 
our country west of the basin of the Mississippi River by Messrs. 
Merriam and Coville. 
The delimitation of the floral divisions of the State introduced by 
the writer can only be regarded as tentative. The area, as yet, has 
been but superficially explored, and in many parts the borders of the 
divisions are but obscurely outlined, and need to be cleared up and 
rectified, while several gaps remain to be filled. 
No effort has been spared to ascertain the distribution of each species 
and variety known from the State, first, over the globe, then, within 
the life zones of this continent, and last, within the floral divisions of 
the State. For this purpose the leading works on systematic botany, 
particularly North American botany, and all the available State and 
local floras and catalogues have been consulted. 
SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 
In the catalogue of the plants growing without cultivation in Ala- 
bama the natural system of Engler and Prantl! has been followed. 
This embodies the results of the latest investigations of the natural 
relations of plants and their affinities in the light of the development 
1Engler und Prantl, Die Natuerlichen Pflanzenfamilien, 1887 to 1900. 
