Conservation of American Wild Flowers 



By R. W. Shufeldt, M.D. 



With this issue American Forestry starts a series of articles on flowers by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt of Washington, D. C, a seientist who is 

 internationally known and esteemed for his able writing on many scientific subjects. Dr. Shufeldt will give his special attention to these 

 articles and in connection with them will answer any question and give advice regarding flowers to any members of the American Forestry 

 Association. — The Editor. 



WHILE very considerable attention has been paid to 

 the protection and conservation of the forests 

 of the United States, there has not, up to the 

 present time, been a cor- 

 responding sohcitation en- 

 gendered with respect to 

 our indigenous flora, or to 

 tlie long list of beautiful, 

 flowering plants of the 

 country. A great deal has 

 been published — indeed, 

 sufficient to form a young 

 library — -on the question of 

 the extennination of a 

 large number of species of 

 •our birds, and certain mam- 

 mals have been extensively 

 treated in a similar way; 

 xiiany kinds of insects, too, 

 Jiave received their share 

 of notice at the hands of 

 ■writers upon such subjects. 

 For some reason or other, 

 however, as just stated, the 

 • question of the extermina- 

 .tion of certain of our wild 

 flowers has been singularly 

 neglected, and the public 

 mind has but rarely been 

 awakened to the fact that 

 not a few of our most in- 

 teresting and beautiful wild 

 flowers stand in imminent 

 -danger of becoming extinct 

 •over considerable areas 

 ■of territory, or even, in 

 some instances, utterly 

 •extenninated. 



Recently a number of 

 interested and capable 

 writers have invited atten- 

 tion to this matter, and it 

 will attract still further 

 jiotice in the near future. 

 What I have said in the last 

 paragraph will apply, per- 

 haps, to towns and cities all 

 ■ over the world; and when 

 I say perhaps, I have in 

 654 



GRASSHOPPERS EATING GOLDEN-ROD 



Fig. 1. — Two species of grasshoppers, feeding upon the leaves of the Common 

 Golden-Rod at the end of summer. The ragged edges of the leaves indicate 

 where that part of the plant has been devoured; in some instances nothing is 

 left save the mid-rib of the leaf. This specimen was collected in the northwest 

 section of Washington. D. C, and photographed by the writer from life, natural 

 size. The open city lot. in which the plant grew, swarmed with these grasshop- 

 pers; it is very evident that these fellows are no conservators of wild flowers. 



mind the cities of Japan. As the Japanese are great 

 lovers of wild flowers, these artistic and cultured people 

 ma\' not habitually exterminate them in the environs of 



their great cities; in any 

 e\ent, we may believe this 

 until we know to the con- 

 trary. However this may 

 be, there is no question but 

 that it is going on in this 

 country all the time; and 

 the writers to whom I re- 

 fer above have very conclu- 

 sively shown that, where 

 wild flowers were very 

 abundant onl}- a compara- 

 tively short time ago — in 

 the outlying neighborhood 

 of such a place as the New 

 York Zoological Park in 

 the Bronx, for example — 

 they are now practically ex- 

 terminated. This has been 

 brought about by their not 

 having been properly and 

 systematically cared for 

 and conserved. Within the 

 jurisdiction of the Zoologi- 

 cal Park the case is very 

 different, for very stringent 

 laws have been rigidly en- 

 forced, and, as a conse- 

 quence, not a single blade 

 of grass is bent down by 

 human feet, nor are other 

 plants injured if the 

 authorities can prevent it. 

 This is not the case, how- 

 ever, — be it said to our lack 

 of care and foresight — 

 with respect to the National 

 Zoological Park and Gar- 

 dens, where people roam at 

 large, and hold populous 

 picnics and other gather- 

 ings ; flowers and shrubs, 

 plants and trees suffer 

 accordingly. 



There are two principal 

 ways of preventing this 



