RARE NATIVE PLANTS' — FERNALD 389 



plants are destroyed to make way for conspicuous foreigners, arti- 

 ficial ponds are constructed, modest wood paths are altered to con- 

 crete roads, that the public may speed rapidly through the intended 

 beauty spot, where, under the now popular but often misinterpreted 

 slogan "conservation," man has done his best to make the face of 

 nature unnatural. 



Think carefully for a moment. The building of artificial ponds, 

 roads, artificial bridges, and artificial beaches, and the planting of 

 introduced trees and shrubs is not conservation. It is just the op- 

 posite of true conservation, for it upsets the natural equilibrium 

 which had become established long before man, proud of a supposed 

 resemblance to God, came to ruin it. True conservation^ leaves 

 nature, mother of us all, uninjured and the true conservationist is a 

 lover and defender of uninjured nature. 



If groups of otherwise unemployed young men are to be encouraged 

 to hew, rake, and alter areas set aside as natural preserves, they will 

 unconsciously become destroyers of the natural equilibrium of nature. 

 Put them to work destroying the vagrant pests which crowd us and 

 which are a worthy foe. Our open lots and roadsides are overrun 

 with ragweed, the most prolific cause of hay fever, as well as by 

 poison ivy, tent caterpillars and scores of other nuisances. No one 

 really cherishes ragweed; but it is a formidable task for a few in- 

 dividuals to clear it all up. It is a quick-growing annual and by 

 concerted action its eradication, or the reduction of poison ivy or of 

 tent caterpillars would be accomplished. Or consider the Japanese 

 honeysuckle (pi. 7). So long as it is kept in restraint this Asiatic 

 migrant is a handsome vine; but it has invaded the Southeast like a 

 horde of Huns. Everywhere from the Gulf States to Long Island 

 this rampant and unrestrained foreign twiner is strangling the native 

 vegetation and producing a monotonous landscape in place of the 

 diversified landscape of many native species which nature bequeathed 

 us. It has become what I have elsewhere called the yellow peril of 

 the South. Its destruction would be a notable achievement. Its con- 

 tinued toleration is a menace to the native plants and animals. 



^ In view of the evident misinterpretation of the meaning of "conservation," as evidenced 

 by numerous comments in papers and magazines and in scores of personal letters received 

 by the vsrriter since the delivery of this paper, it is well to quote from the Century 

 Dictionary : 



"conservation ... [ . . . L. conservatio (n — ) , < conservare, pp. conservatus, keep : see 

 conserve, v]i. The act of conserving, guarding, or keeping with care ; preservation from 

 loss, decay, Injury, or violation ; the keeping of a thing in a safe or entire state." 

 "conserve ... i. To keep in a safe or sound state ; save ; preserve from loss, decay, waste, 

 or injury ; defend from violation : as, to conserve bodies from perishing." 

 As soon as man, or his implements, disturbs the long-established interrelation of 

 organisms in the wild, he innocently but nevertheless effectively prevents the conservation 

 of these delicately interrelated animals and plants. In the brief space available this 

 important question can hardly be expanded. The spread of youthful and aggressive 

 "weeds" already referred to and the destruction of the feeding grounds of shore birds are 

 pertinent illustrations. 



