CONSERVATION OF AMERICAN WILD FLOWERS 



657 



ties about Washington, well within 

 the city limits ; but now one fre- 

 quently has to hunt long and well 

 to find it in sufficient quantity to 

 make a small bouquet. The plant is 

 becoming more and more rare 

 every year, not only because the 

 city has three or four times its 

 former population and a great 

 many more people ramble through 

 the woods than formerly, but the 

 increasing rarity of the flower is 

 to be accounted for by the gatherers 

 culling it in excess of their needs. 

 Then, too, as I said before, less 

 pains are taken in plucking fhe 

 flowers — the delicate little trailer is 

 only too often pulled up, roots and 

 all. Posted preserves and other de- 

 terrants militate against this to some 

 e.xtent ; but I have faith in the true 

 American; were he or she to know 

 of the damage they do, a simple 

 appeal would have the effect of 

 saving many a grow- 

 ing plant of trailing 

 arbutus. 



What I have said 

 here about this flower 

 applies to not a few 

 other species, such as 

 red cardinal, blue car- 

 dinal, various species 

 of violets, especially 

 the bird's-foot violet, 

 here shown in Figure 

 4, the bluets (Fig. 5), 

 bloodroot, anentones, 

 and others. With such 

 flowers as black-eyed 

 Susans, golden-rod, and 

 so on, little harm is 

 done in this way, for 

 these plants grow in 

 such wonderful abun- 

 dance and profusion — 

 sometimes covering 

 acres — that they defy 

 reduction through ex- 

 cessive culling. 



Shrubs sufifer in a 

 somewhat different 

 way, for here the 

 branches of varying 

 sizes are deliberately 

 broken oft' — generally 

 the ones nearest the 

 ground and bearing the 

 greatest profusion of 



A' 



QUESTIONS ABOUT 

 FLOWERS AND SHRUBS 



MERICAN FORESTRY invites 

 inquiry about flowers or shrubs. 

 These inquiries will be 

 promptly answered. There will 

 be no charge. Questions about the 

 structure and physiology of plants; 

 their distribution and conservation; 

 their economic uses, if proven; their 

 friends and enemies, including birds, 

 insects, and other living forms, — 

 indeed anything that refers to their 

 natural history will be answered. 



American Forestry also aims to 

 exploit anything that lends' itself to 

 inducing our boys and girls to study 

 and collect American wild flowers; to 

 photograph them, and form botanical 

 clubs where collections of pressed 

 flowers may be kept for the use of 

 members. 



Address all inquiries to 



AMERICAN FORESTRY, 



Washington,^. C. 



FEWER QUAKER LADIES EVERY YEAR 



Fig. 5. — The quaint little four-cleft Bluets or Quaker-Ladies represent another flower that 

 is often ruthlessly gathered, only to be thrown away with others picked at the same time. 

 It may be well to know that if a bunch be plucked by themselves, they will last a long time 

 in a little vase filled with water. It occurs more or less abundantly, from all the northern 

 parts of the United States to Michigan and southward. Few wild flowers are better known 

 than this little attractive light blue beauty, with its yellow center. In the spring before 

 last the author photographed an exceptionally fine plant, and the same is here reproduced 

 natural size. It belongs to the Madder family. Structurally it is interesting from the fact 

 that the flowers are dimorphous. — some having a long pistil and short stamens, the reverse 

 being the case in other flowers. This arrangement prevents self-fertilization. 



flinsers. In a few seasons — some- 

 times even in one season — this re- 

 sults in entirely destroying the 

 shape of the tree or shrub, in seri- 

 ously diminishing the amount of 

 its normal florescence, and in 

 damaging the growth generally. 

 L'sually the |iink azalias (Fig. 2), 

 the dogwoods, and others that can 

 be reached for the purpose, are 

 the victims of the vandalism to 

 which reference is made. I feel 

 that the present article will not 

 have been written in vain should 

 it have the eftect of checking, to 

 any degree whatever, the steady 

 destruction that take.s place every 

 spring — sometimes all summer 

 long — of the wild flowers in the 

 woods and fields surrounding our 

 populous cities. 



iVlthough not altogether within 

 the scope of the present article, 

 I am sure it will not be taken amiss 

 when I invite atten- 

 tion to the fact that, 

 in many places — more 

 ])articularly in certain 

 cities in California — a 

 taste has arisen, and in 

 some instances very ex- 

 tensively cultivated, 

 for the care of many 

 species of our wild 

 flowers in gardens, or 

 under conditions de- 

 manding even more 

 land than a garden 

 amounts to — something 

 after the out-of-doors 

 nursery order. Here 

 they are studied, photo- 

 graph ed, cross-fer- 

 tilized, and admired, 

 often with greater 

 pleasure and profit 

 than in their normal 

 places of occurrence 

 in nature. This very 

 satisfactory and en- 

 couraging taste is also 

 to be noticed in certain 

 jilaces in the eastern 

 districts, and it should 

 bv all means be fur- 

 thered by any one who 

 aims to assist in pre- 

 venting the extermina- 

 tion of mauA' of our 



