THE PLANT WORLD 129 



ment in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. They are the 

 beech-maple type, and contain not only the greatest number of species of 

 trees, but also of shrubby undergrowth and herbaceous plants. 



On the east shore of Lake Michigan there are places where in a half 

 hour's walk one may pass through a succession of sand-dunes showing 

 all stages in vegetative development from the desert to the luxuriant 

 forest. Close by the lake are the shifting dunes with never a plant upon 

 them ; back of these are the fixed dunes with a sparse vegetation of a 

 xerophytic character ; farther inland are dunes where the scrub-pine 

 gives way to the white pine, and the black oak is supplanted by the red 

 and then the white. Each successive dune shows a richer vegetation 

 then the preceding till finally the last of all has become truly mesophy- 

 tic, and shows a forest of elm and ash and maple with seedlings of the 

 beech just coming in. Here are bloodroots and hepaticas, and even the 

 delicate maidenhair fern, one of the most mesophytic of our native plants. 

 Such a series can teach us more than we now know how to interpret, and 

 once broken, it can never be replaced. 



The Everglades of Florida have a most peculiar formation, absolutely 

 without parallel. At the present time they are being drained and used 

 for the cultivation of pineapples. 



Our noble sequoias, the " Big Trees " of the far West, are an endemic 

 species, and more of them should be reserved. 



Such characteristic formations as the above and others of equal impor- 

 tance should be preserved, and to this end steps should be taken at once, 

 for changes are so rapid that it will soon be too late. Only by the prompt 

 action of our State Legislatures and National Government will our country 

 be saved from the fate of all countries of older civilization. Lloyd Praeger 

 says in his ' ' Irish Topographical Botany " : " It is not easy to conjec- 

 ture the primeval condition of the fertile portions of this country, before 

 tillage, grazing, and drainage began to play their part. We can conceive 

 great woods and thickets, open park-like land and grassy downs, but the 

 details of the primitive vegetation we may never know." 



The question of the preservation of our native plants is a vital one. 

 It concerns all our people, from the President of the United States to the 

 little child of the kindergarten. Only by the hearty cooperation of all can 

 the day be saved and Nature come into her own again. 



Dr. C. E. Waters, Treasurer of the Society, will make the annual 

 spring lecture tour on its behalf, with the aid of a grant from the Stokes 

 fund of the New York Botanical Garden. The dates and itinerary have 

 not been definitely arranged, but Dr. Waters proposes to devote himself 

 to the Middle States, probably visiting Harrisburg, Elmira, Binghamton, 

 Utica, Albany, Poughkeepsie, Yonkers, Newark, Trenton, and Wash- 

 ington. Correspondence from clubs or persons interested is invited. 



