82 THE PLANT WOKLD 



wish also to guard against a decrease in the number of individual plants 

 of useful, interesting or beautiful species. In 1891 Dr. Farlow * called 

 attention to the destruction of shade trees on country roadsides and the 

 streets of villages, towns and cities through the gross indifference of the 

 town and city fathers and the public generally, who allow telegraph and 

 telephone men to mutilate the branches, the horses of the milkman or 

 grocer to gnaw the bark, and ignorant officials to prune the trees, or 

 even, on the slightest pretext, to cut them down. He says : " It is all 

 very well to talk about the protection of forests and the formation of 

 National Parks in distant states. But we have our own forests, which 

 are the trees in our streets and public grounds, and before turning our 

 eyes in other directions, we had better see what is needed at home. 

 . . . Not a few of our New England towns owe their prosperity as 

 summer resorts to the arching elms and rounded maples whose loss no 

 money could replace, ... an effort should be made to secure leg- 

 islation which shall make compulsory the placing of guards around 

 trees in exposed places. Furthermore, the care of trees in public 

 grounds should be entrusted only to persons specially trained for the 

 purpose." 



Botanical friends who spend summers in the country complain of 

 the ruthless way in which, in mending or widening the roads, the most 

 beautiful wild growth is destroyed through being plowed up, mowed 

 down or smothered with stones or gravel, and suggest that the mission- 

 ary movement should especially aim at reaching selectmen, roadmas- 

 ters or those who act, in more ways than one, as highwaymen. 



The chief danger that menaces our native plants is from those who 

 cut or dig them in quantity to sell in the cities. We rely upon the 

 Forestry Association and the Plant Protection Society to tell us 

 whether the evergreen trees, pines, spruces and first are in danger from 

 the wholesale attacks they suffer in December. It pains some of us to 

 see the cart-loads of Christmas trees brought into the city annually, to 

 be enjoyed but for one night, and then to be cast aside. We readt of 

 children in an English village going out to the plantation to dig up 

 their Christmas tree, planting it carefully in a tub before they bring it 

 into the house; after it has appeared in full glory at their evening 

 party, they trundle it in a wheelbarrow, " all its ornaments bobbing 

 wildly," down to a neighbor's, where it delights the eyes of a party of 

 poor children. After this, it is taken back to its original home and 

 planted out, to grow in peace until the next Christmas. This delightful 



* W. G. Farlow. Diseases of Trees Likely to Follow Mechanical Injuries. Read 

 before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, March 7, 1891. 



tC. M. Yonge. Both Sides of the Shield. Macmillan. 



