THE STATE PROTECTION OF WILD PLANTS 635 



foresters with a view to the proper care of our national forests. 

 This must have a beneficial effect upon the forests and wood- 

 lands in private hands by encouraging a wise and skilful super- 

 vision of those sources of fuel and moisture also. It is the 

 retention of the latter that we specially advocate here but as it 

 is intimately wrapped up with the preservation and establishment 

 of permanent woodlands the encouragement of the latter aspect 

 is the one to emphasise, because one of more direct economic 

 importance. The encouragement of the keeping of Arbor Day 

 has always been advocated by the Selborne Society and it is 

 now receiving wider recognition, so that children may be 

 impressed with a desire to be provident in this matter. 



The desiccation which is due to drainage is a question which 

 is best dealt with by the advocacy of a general system of 

 irrigation. There can be no two opinions as to the value of this 

 practice and of the necessity of adopting it in this country, 

 especially since the recurrence of droughts periodically has 

 become an established fact. The necessary adaptation of 

 moisture-loving plants to xerophilous conditions can only be 

 controlled, to the advantage of the hygrophiles, which with 

 difficulty survive this artificial struggle for existence, by the 

 reservation of typical areas required by such hygrophilous 

 species ; and reservation is again a matter for State organisation. 



Coming next to the increasing demolition of buildings, 

 especially ancient ones, it is a matter for satisfaction that in the 

 National Trust for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments and 

 places of natural beauty we have a body actively engaged in the 

 acquirement and preservation of such sites. Moreover, the 

 recent recognition of the value of the work done by the National 

 Trust by the State in the proffer of advice in such matters by 

 the Office of Works is a good augury for the future not only 

 of this phase of preservation of monuments but also for the 

 existence of a department for the protection and preservation of 

 all natural monuments, as in Prussia. That other bodies, such 

 as the Kyrle Society and Commons Preservation Society, as 

 well as the Footpath Associations, are receiving public support 

 on a wide scale shows that there is ample scope for optimism 

 in this direction. 



Moreover the care of the highways is another matter requir- 

 ing urgent attention. Hedges and ditches of roadsides and 

 paths are being periodically despoiled of their beauty by the 



