The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION SOCIETY 



OF AMERICA. 



Vol. V. MAY, 1903. No, 5. 



NEW MISSIONARY WORK.* 



By Cora H. Clarke. 



AGAIN we are called upon to rally to the defense, this time of our 

 native plants. One becomes a little weary of this constant war- 

 fare, but nothing is more certain than that we are not put into 

 this world to avoid action, since it is absolutely impossible for us to 

 avoid responsibility, those who refuse to hear about a wrong being as 

 accountable for the continuance of said wrong as those who, hearing, 

 refuse to act ; and they in turn are no less to blame than those who act, 

 but act ineffectively or injudiciously. 



Since we have no reason to discredit the statement that our native 

 plants do require protection, it becomes our duty to inform ourselves 

 as to the dangers which threaten them, to ascertain the best means of 

 combating these dangers, and to consider how we, individually, can aid 

 in the M^arfare. 



The circular of the New York Botanical Garden calls for *' Essays 

 on the Preservation of Wild Plants, including shrubs, herbs and trees." 

 We are tempted to consign schemes for the preservation of trees to the 

 Forestry Association ;t there is surely no danger of the extermination 

 of tree-species by the gathering of tree blossoms? Possibly not, but 

 species-extermination is not the only evil that threatens our flora — we 



* A warded the second prize of thirty dollars, competition of 1902, from the Caro- 

 line and Olivia Phelps Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. Reprinted 

 from Xh^ Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, 



fThe American Forestry Association, Washington, D. C. 



