8 THE PLANT WORLD. 



SUCCESSFUL NATURAL PARKS. 



Bv William Palmer. 



A board sign ' To Macleay Park ' at the end of the iron bridge 

 leading to WiUiamette Heights, Portland, Ore., had long been 

 familiar to me during the early days of the late Lewis and Clark 

 Exposition, and I had assumed that it pointed the way to a real 

 estate subdivision. Late one rainy afternoon I had an oppor- 

 tunity to explore this narrow ravine leading into the hills. With 

 my portfolio I wandered up the narrow path, collecting a few 

 plants on the way, and passing through a narrow opening in a 

 crude sapling fence, I soon noticed several copies of a placard 

 tacked on trees about a bark-covered tee])ee. My curiosity was 

 aroused and the following was what I read : 



"PICK NOTHING. 

 " Please Read This. 



" There being a strong desire on the part of the citizens, the 

 Lewis and Clark Board and the Park Board to have one wild 

 spot in onr city limits that is untouched and untrammeled by the 

 hands of man. the Park Board has therefore selected as that place 

 the Macleay Park and such portions of the Macleay Park trail as 

 come under the control of the board. It is desired that not a fern, 

 flower, leaf, twig, or branch of any name or nature be disturbed. 

 While the Park Board feels that about 95 per cent, of the commu- 

 nity are thoughtful and appreciative, still there are a few that are 

 careless and indifferent, and to these few it necessitates the board 

 making stringent laws not allowing any one to pluck or mar any- 

 thing. A keeper clothed with authority will be constantly kept in 

 the park rigidly to carry out this plan, by arrest or otherwise. All 

 good citizens will confer a favor if they will report quietly to the 

 local keeper any depredation of this kind coming under their no- 

 tice, and thus assist in keeping this park in its native wild beauty. 

 There is plenty of room for marauders outside the park premises. 

 It is requested that no one carry cut shrubs through the park, as 

 this would give vandals a loophole out of which to escape. The 

 keeper in charge is hereby requested to carry out the spirit of this 



statement. 



" George H. Williams, 



"J. D. Meyer, 



" Ion Lewis, 



" L. L. Hawkins, 



"Park Board. 

 "The Park belongs to you, kindly .\ssist in protecting it." 



The possession of m\- ])ortfolio would naturally have suggested 

 to a stranger that I had botanical intent on the plants, and 



