WILD FLOWER SANCTUARIES 



The rapid and continuous disappearance of 

 our early wild flowers is causing the question 

 to arise from many quarters, and in varied tones 

 of interest and anxiety, whether our wild-wood 

 flora, the rarest, the most exquisite, the most 

 ethereal and spirituelle flora on the face of the 

 earth, must, like the Indian and the buffalo, 

 disappear from a world no longer fitted to its 

 needs. 



Of course there are fastnesses in the moun- 

 tains, inaccessiblQ recesses, that will never be 

 forced — and here these nurslings of the forest 

 may make their last stand, but the pleasure is 

 gone that comes to those who wander through 

 woodland ways to catch the first shimmer of 

 bloom on the forest floor, to get the first view 

 of those shy, elusive blossoms which, before the 

 snow has entirely melted and while the trees 

 are still waving leafless branches, bear an un- 

 changing message of life and love. 



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