bailey] wild flowers AND THE TEACHERS 149 



cuted little plant ! Isn't it time for the teacher to stop to explain 

 what all this will lead to before its actual extermination confronts her ? 



Another plant that has been pushed back to the regions where 

 few travel is the pinxter or wild azalea. Its delightful fragrance 

 has long since been but a memory in many wood-lots and along 

 roadsides ! To whom shall we look for the cause of this ? In the 

 past teachers failed to teach the lesson of restraint when it was 

 necessary. They preferred to share with the children the fleeting 

 pleastire of a handful or armful on the desk — ^just for the day. 

 And each year saw less of it to break away ; then the time came 

 when there was none, — none for a generation more capable of 

 appreciating its natural beauty than the thoughtless generation 

 which, unwittingly, put out of existence one of the most beautiful 

 of wild flowers. Then there are the wonderful orchids ! Where is 

 arethusa? Have you any? Then try to save it. It is worth 

 going to see. It is worth going a long way just to see. Take 

 along your camera and get it that way. Leave it on its stem that 

 another, journeying with a camera, will have the same opportunity 

 that you have. Where are the moccasin flowers? There are a 

 few of them left but they are growing less in number and will 

 continue so to do until there is a change in sentiment in regard to 

 picking them. Why should the most beautiful flowers be picked 

 and exterminated while the weeds thrive on with no one to molest 

 them? What a flne thing it would be if those who pick should 

 suddenly decide on the weeds and visit them with the calamity 

 which now threatens those flowers we all want to save ! 



The list of threatened wild flowers can be extended for there are 

 many on the verge of extinction. What is to be done? Really, 

 when is a wild flower a flower ? The best answer I know is the one 

 which says that a wild flower is a wild flower only when it is growing 

 on its stem in its natural setting. It needs all the woods, and the 

 trees and the soil and the air to make it a real wild flower. Bunches 

 of wild flowers packed together and set in a vase are not attractive 

 to people with good taste, but only appeal to a crude appreciation. 

 Even if they were thus really attractive, it would be a most 

 extravagant way to exhaust the beauties of the fields and woods. 



If we would have succeeding generations share the pleasures we 

 derive from a walk in the woods, it is necessary that teachers take 

 the lead in giving boys and girls a proper conception of wild flower 

 appreciation. 



