SOCIETY FOR PROTECTION OF NATIVE PLANTS. II9 



MEETING OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION 



OF NATIVE PLANTS. 



At the fifth annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of 

 Native Plants, held in Boston on March 24th, an interesting 

 address was made by Professor IMerritt L. Fernald. of the Gray 

 Herbarium, Cambridge, who acted as chairman of the meeting in 

 the absence of the president, Professor Robert T. Jackson. 



Certain important facts were presented regarding the flora of 

 this country ; first, the rapid changes from causes which we can 

 not influence, such as the inevitable destruction of native plants 

 resulting from the building of towns and highways, and the culti- 

 vation of large tracts of farm lands. Where, from any cause, 

 woodland disappears, the delicate wild flowers, which flourish 

 only in their native soil of leaf-mould, are also sure to disappear. 

 As soon as we dry out the humus, whether by burning, cutting 

 out, or building, these somewhat fastidious plants have to go, with 

 no hope of return. Plants which like open spaces are more apt 

 to be coarse and showy, unlike the woodland flowers. Many of 

 these, like the golden-rod and asters, are native and spread rap- 

 idly into cleared spots, but in the neighborhood of large towns 

 even these coarse and vigorous natives find themselves crowded 

 by the coarser and more vigorous roadside plants of Europe. 

 Such plants come from Europe with the populations which have 

 emigrated, the seeds being brought in clothing, blankets, etc. ; 

 and having had generations of breeding under hard conditions, 

 they find nothing to hinder their growth. Over six hundred 

 of them, familiarly known as weeds, are now among our wild 

 plants, and at no very distant time they will cover the con- 

 tinent. Already, over large tracts of our prairie region, the 

 native flora is vanishing, or has actually vanished, and the wild 

 flowers are of the weed-like type. To check the coming in of this 

 coarse, vagrant type we should encourage the setting apart, for 

 the public, of spots of woodland, where natural conditions can be 

 maintained. 



