WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION SOCIETY 269 



taken by introduced weeds, This is due to various causes, but 

 excessive picking and wanton breaking have contributed their 

 share, by preventing many of them from forming seed. Collect- 

 ing for commercial purposes has greatly decreased or exterminated 

 many native plants. 



Conditions vary in different localities, but it is safe to say that 

 the early spring flowers, especially those that fade quickly, should 

 not be picked in large quantities; particularly anemone, hepatica, 

 dutehman's breeches, squirrel corn, adder' s-tongue, blood-root, 

 columbine, jack-in-the-pulpit. Lillies and orchids of all kinds, 

 lobelias, gentians, trailing arbutus, azalea, mountain laurel, 

 rhododendron, rhodora, dogwood, winterberry and holly also are 

 becoming rare or extinct. 



Plants that produce edible fruits which serve as food for the 

 birds such as wild cherries, elderberries, dogwood, sumach, vi- 

 burnum, spicebush, bear-berry, shad-bush, aralia and mulberry 

 should also be protected or planted. 



The following plants are often a nuisance: dandelions, butter- 

 cups, wild carrot, some of the clovers, daisies, both yellow and 

 white, bouncing-bet, St. John's-wort, yarrow, tansy, boneset, 

 sunflowers, golden-rod, asters; they are usually abundant in 

 waste places and along roadsides and may be gathered in large 

 quantities. 



Some of our native plants such as: violets, wild geranium, roses, 

 spiraea, clematis and most of the composites are often abundant 

 and decorative in masses ! But it is to be remembered that most 

 garden flowers have been cultivated because they are good for 

 decoration and do not soon fade and these should be substituted 

 for the native plants whenever possible. 



Will You Help To Protect Our Native Plants? 



Will you teach this A. B. C? 



(A) That what we have picked and carried away can no 

 longer be enjoyed by anyone else in the place which they made 

 beautiful. 



(B) That although it is tempting and easy to pick a place 

 clean of every wild flower growing there, we shall probably have a 

 great many withered flowers by the time we reach home. 



(C) That, worst of all, there will not be enough flowers left in 

 that place to go to seed and make it beautiful again next year. 



