/l^^ SCHOOL BOTANY 



PLANT PROTECTION. 

 Two socie'ties for the protection of our native wildflowers 

 have been in existence in the United States for several years 

 and have no doubt done considerable to inspire a proper senti- 

 ment toward flower gathering, but both have stopped short 

 some distance this side of success, because their efforts have 

 been almost entirely dissuasive. It has many times been 

 pointed out that it is of no real value in flower protection to 

 pledge people not to pick the flowers so long as there are other 

 flower-lovers unpledged. Such a course simply results in one 

 part of the public preserving the flowers until the other is 

 ready to pick them. One cannot, of course, say anything 

 against efforts to bring about a more rational treatment of our 

 native plants, but the fact remains that if the plants are to be 

 adequately protected they must in some way be so surrounded 

 with safeguards that they will not be picked even by those who 

 desire to do so. So far as may be judged at present this can 

 only be accomplished by establishing sanctuaries for the wild- 

 flowers, exactly like the sanctuaries already provided for 

 birds. In the more mountainous and broken parts of our 

 country it is likely that all but the frailest of our wildings will 

 persist for a long time. Such regions are usually too sterile 

 and too steep for cultivation and frequently are too precipit- 

 ous for pastures. Here the wild-flowers may grow and 

 thrive unmolested. In vast stretches of pinebarrens and sand 

 barrens also the plants are likely, for a long time to come, to 

 have few enemies, but in the vicinity of cities and the large 

 towns, and in agricultural regions where all the land is cul- 

 tivable, the plant population is threatened with speedy extinc- 



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