180 THK PIvANT WORI.D 



to purchase them ; but this was long since recognized and is being urged 

 at every opportunity. 



In conclusion, let me suggest that if ever the time recurs when the 

 now over-filled hours of the New York school teacher admit of leisure for 

 those semi-social chats with the scholars which once gave opportunity for 

 the inculcation of much valuable knowledge not mentioned in the curri- 

 culum, it might aid the cause of the wild flowers materially to tell the 

 scholars of the widespread good accomplished by judicious use of the 

 income of the Phelps-Stokes fund. 



The fund is a sum of $3,000 donated by Caroline and Olivia Phelps- 

 Stokes, on condition that the income of it be always devoted to the pres- 

 ervation of native plants. Much good has been accomplished in dissem- 

 inating able essays paid for from the income of the fund, in giving wide 

 currency to literature of like character, and by a course of equally able 

 lectures in many cities, the expenses of which work were also paid for out 

 of the fund income. 



What more likely than that from the ranks of the merchant princes, 

 the soldiers, sailors, and more humble toilers, or the few multi-million- 

 aires now developing among the pupils, some will in time swell the fund 

 for the preservation of native plants. 



This is certainly of most vital importance to the movement, for in 

 these days of strenuous endeavor all projects of importance must indeed 

 be wafted toward the goal on golden wings to attain any very marked 

 success. 



Prof. W. L. Bray, of the University of Texas, has prepared a bulle- 

 tin on the "Forest Resources of Texas," which should prove of great 

 value to the residents of that State, especially in view of the fact that of 

 all the States in the Union Texas has the largest wooded area. Nor does 

 this include the chaparral growth extending throughout the Rio Grande 

 country, but only the vast timber section of east Texas and the central 

 and far western woodlands. These are estimated at 64,000 square miles. 

 Much of this territory has been cut over, especially in the shortleaf and 

 longleaf pine sections, but conservative estimates still place the merchant- 

 able forest area of Texas at 27,000 square miles. There is now annually 

 cut about 125,000 acres of timberland, yielding about a billion board feet. 

 The lumber industry is exceeded in value only by the cotton and cattle 

 industries. In its forests Texas has sixty-one species and varieties of trees 

 of commercial importance. 



