6 Preface. 



wards enjoyed. Through the kindness of the military superin- 

 tendent of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway, 

 Gen. William T. Inncs, I was favored with the privilege of using 

 all trains, passenger and freight, at all points for travel. This 

 permit continued four years, until the administration of the rail- 

 road was changed, and when I also lost my office as State Librarian. 

 From this time on I carried on an interesting correspondence with 

 prominent botanists in all parts of the United States, and by sub- 

 mission to the approval of our leading botanical authorities, I se- 

 cured the correctness of sj)ecific determinations. I am under great 

 obligations to the late Dr. G-ray, of Cambridge, Mass. ; the late Dr. 

 Engelman, of St. Louis, Mo. ; the late Dr. G. Vasey, of the Tlhited 

 States Department of Agriculture ; the late Dr. Chapman, of Apa- 

 lachicola, Fla., for their assistance. 



It is much to be regretted that Dr. Eugel, who, about fifty years 

 ago, resided in the vicinity of Greeneville and made valuable collec- 

 tions and discoveries in that vicinity and the mountains of East 

 Tennessee and North Carolina, died without leaving a record of his 

 work. His collections came in the possession of Mr. Shuttleworth, 

 of England. Seneeio Rugelia Gray, Plantago Rugelii Decaisne, 

 Siphonyehia Rugelii Chapm. commemorate his nameJ 



My collections were in much request for exchange, as they 

 contained many novelties and were well prepared. The area 

 of Middle Tennesse was an, unexplored region, botanieally, and 

 I claim the honor of being the pioneer in this field. At the 

 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, held in Nashville in 1877, the botanical division en- 

 couraged me to prepare a catalogue of plants or flora of Tennes- 

 see, which I was assured would be received favorably by all Ameri- 

 can botanists. I consented to do so, and fulfilled my obligation in 

 ]883 by publishing a small volume of one hundred and nine 

 pages, a systematic enumeration of ' seventeen hundred and eight 

 species. It was printed at my own expense, and distributed 

 gratuitously among the schools of the State, and such patrons of 

 botany as applied for it. This movement helped me very much 

 in the furtherance of my enterprise, as it brought together all per- 

 sons within the State who had an interest in botany, and had col- 

 lected more or less. With this catalogue in hand, every collector 

 in Tennessee was enabled to see whether or not it-contained all 

 the species which he had found himself, and he would then report 



