THE PRESERVATION OF ]YILD FLOWERS. 



247 



protection are wanting in an appeal for the plants. Birds, high in 

 the scale of animal life, with power to feel pain and pleasure, with 

 food-seeking, home-making and young-protecting instincts, demand, 

 as fellow creatures, freedom from cruelty. Efforts were first made to 

 protect them as individuals, while the prevention of the destruction of 

 species was a secondary consideration. Through the agricultural de- 

 partment of our government, knowledge of the great economic value 

 of birds was disseminated, and this was a most effective means of in- 



GOLDEN-ROD {SoLidago serolina). 



suring their protection. Through the same department people learned 

 of the vast value of our trees to preserve which a public sentiment was 

 created. Laws were then passed for their protection, and we now have 

 a distinct forestry policy. 



To most persons our wild plants are only things of beauty, com- 

 mon property to be admired or destroyed at will and, therefore, can not 

 be preserved by the same petitions as were made in behalf of the birds. 

 The appeal for the plants is much more difficult and must be at first 



