PASSING OF THE PRAIRIE FLORA. 1 63 



of the prairie througii which our childish eyes first caught 

 ghmpses into the infinite depths of nature, and which some of us 

 liave never ceased to love — a universe of unfathomed meaning 

 whose boundarv is God — is it necessary that they all be swept 

 -away before the advance of industrial progress ? There are those 

 who are ever ready to cry down all such matters as weak senti- 

 mentality. Their ideas of the rseful seem incapable of grasp- 

 ing other than financial standards. And }et the fact remains 

 that the highest utilitv resides in that which is able to enrich, not 

 the pocket-book, but the life of man himself, that which lifts him 

 into broader, truer, nobler living, to greater capacity to think, to 

 feel, and to love. Is it not worth while then to preserve the 

 beautiful things of nature, small and trifling though they may 

 appear, if through the appreciation of them the American char- 

 acter may be drawn away from a too absorbing pursuit of wealth 

 into fuller and more abundant living? 



How may our prairie wild flowers be preserved ? Every great 

 movement is ps}chological in its origin. If we can only arouse 

 in the popular mind an appreciation of the wild flowers and a 

 desire to know them more intimately, I have not a doubt but that 

 the method of preservation \y\\\ be found without much difficulty. 

 The very fact that they are passing awa}- — if it becomes known — 

 will do much to awaken a sense of their value. It is the same 

 principle to which the director of the Xew York Zoological Park 

 referred when in speaking of the awakening popular interest in 

 animal life he said : "As the world's great wild beasts are driven 

 further and further into the dark fields from which there is no 

 return, civilized man desires more and more to see them, to touch 

 them, and to know them ere they go." Many of our prairie towns 

 are just awakening to a sense of the desirability of parks and 

 other means of beautifying their streets and surroundings. In- 

 stead of using introduced plants almost exclusively, as at pres- 

 ent, these might be planted with native flowers and shrubs, many 

 of which would be hardier and more decorative than the intro- 

 duced species. As the people became more interested in the 

 wild flowers they would be more often seen in the private flower 

 garden, for they are not so hard to cultivate as is usually sup- 



