THE PLANT WOKLD 105 



nearly always be collected without compunction. Sucli are daisies, 

 buttercups, wild carrot, dandelions and others. 



There are other flowers in every locality that should not be gathered 

 at all, but it is doubtful whether a list of such would not induce certain 

 irresponsible persons to hunt them down. If good full lists based upon 

 the same principles as those given above were easily accessible to every 

 one, I believe it would aid greatly in the matter of popular education 

 and w^ould act as a restraint on the more public-spirited portion of the 

 community. 



As before stated, the usual channels for popular instruction must 

 be our main reliance. Newspaper agitation is slowly but surely making 

 it bad form. It has always been poor taste to wear the plumage of our 

 wild birds, and the same agency properly utilized will make any right- 

 minded person ashamed to collect great handfuls of our wild flowers 

 only to throw them away as soon as they wither a little in the hand. 

 Fewer flowers will be picked, and those few will be carefully cherished, 

 so as to please for days instead of minutes. 



The place of places for public instruction is the schoolroom, although 

 newspapers, books and lectures have done much for animals and will do 

 much more for plants. Everj' teacher of botany and every teacher of 

 nature study should be sure to imbue his pupils with an idea of the 

 sanctity of plant life. Here is a field which some flower-lover of the 

 artistic and literary ability should enter at once. For a well-told story 

 is the strongest method of rooting ideas so deeply in childish minds that 

 they will bear fruit in action. Black Beauty, overdrawn and unreal as 

 it is, by its vivid portrayal of the suffering (real or imaginary) of the 

 horse, read in thousands of schools, has done incalculable good in mak- 

 ing children more thoughtful of the comfort of their animal pets and 

 companions and more considerate in their treatment of them. 



Something similar is needed properly to impress children with the 

 fact that flowers need their care and consideration, and may suffer de- 

 formity and death if misused, although actual pain may not be possible 

 to them. 



I would respectfully suggest that the next prize from The Olivia and 

 Caroline Phelps Stokes Fund be offered for stories of this sort, suitable 

 for reading in the primary and grammar grades. 



I may have used the term " Societies for the preservation of native 

 wild flowers," unadvisedly, for few local societies have as yet been formed. 

 Every botanical club and society should at once organize itself into such 

 a society and furnish a large membership for the central organization 

 already formed. 



Let each such club begin at once to study local needs and the best 

 means of meeting them. The plants in need of protection should be 



