138 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



criticism that can be made of most of the proposals for pro- 

 tecting plants thus far offered, is that they are based too largely 

 on sentiment. Undoubtedly a very praiseworthy sentiment 

 is at the bottom of all suggestions for protecting the flowers 

 but it would seem that protection, itself, should be of more 

 practical nature to be effective. We should at once locate all 

 areas in which plants may be protected without conflicting with 

 other uses of the ground — parks, cemeteries, large estates, 

 woodlands, marshes, bogs, dunes, cliffs, river banks, lake 

 shores, and railroad rights of way — and see that they are prop- 

 erl\- protected. And we are of the opinion that one stern sign 

 to the effect that flower-gathers will be prosecuted is worth 

 a lumdrecl requests to "please do not pick the pretty flowers". 



Perhaps the herb everlasting, the fragrant immortelle 

 of (_)ur autumn fields has the most suggestive od^r to me of 

 all those that set me dreaming. I can hardly describe the 

 strange tlioughts and emotions that come to mc as I inhale 

 the aroma of its pale, dry, rustling flowers. A something 

 it nas a sepulchral spicery, as if it had been brought from 

 the core of some great pvramid, where it has lain on the breast 

 of a mummied Pharaoh. Some too, of immortality in the 

 sad, famt sweetness lingering so long in its lifeless petals. 

 Yet this does not tell me why it fills my eyes with tears and 

 carries me in blissful thought to the banks of Asphodel that 

 border the River of Life. — OuvER Wendeli. Hgemes. 



