3G0 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BRITISH PLANTS. 



communicated to the Committee as to tlie disappearance of plants 

 fi-om accessible habitats within the range of some of the deer 

 " forests," but it is unable to verify these statements. Most of the 

 correspondents agree, however, that the injudicious action of 

 botanists themselves, and of botanical exchange clubs, has been a 

 potent factor in the changes which have taken place. It is too 

 often forgotten that the very rarity of a plant is the sign, and m 

 great degree also the measure, of the acuteness of its struggle for 

 existenpe, and that when a plant is in a state of unstable equilibrium 

 with its environment a small disturbance may have disproportion- 

 ately great effects. 



It will be observed that the *' dealer " and "collector" figure 

 largely, especially in connection with the disappearance of ferns. 

 Thus one of the correspondents indicates (and offers to name) a 

 dealer who has extirpated, or well-nigh extirpated, a considerable 

 number of species in the district of Dumfries, and whose conduct 

 he had brought under the notice of the local Natural History 

 Society, of which the correspondent is secretary. " He had also 

 removed and sold almost all of the plants of Xyfiiphcea alba from the 

 lochs of this district before discovery ; but now I am happy to say 

 he is forbidden access to any estate in this district under penalty 

 of prosecution for trespass." The attention of Natural History 

 Societies may well be drawn to this case, as it happily illustrates 

 at the same time one phase of the disease and a cure. 



" Summer visitors " do not appear to be directly responsible for 

 much damage, as their wanderings are probably over too restricted 

 an area to produce much effect. There is no doubt, however, that 

 they provide the larger portion of the customers of the ** collector," 

 and so are indirectly answerable for his ravages. The temptation 

 to bring home some rare and beautiful fern, like Asphlium [Poly- 

 stichum) Lonchitis, as a relic of a northern trip, is too great to be 

 resisted, though something may possibly be done by persuading 

 tourists that equally good plants, taken up with all proper care, 

 and at a season when transplanting is not dangerous, can be 

 obtained from any great fern nursery, for a price which is practi- 

 cally lower, often much lower, than that charged upon some High- 

 land railway platform or roadside. 



The Committee feels, however, that neither local dealers nor 

 their customers are as a rule amenable to any ordinary appeal or to 

 sentimental considerations, and would suggest therefore that the 

 local Natural History Societies or Field Clubs should keep careful 

 guard over any rare plants to be found within their respective 

 spheres of action, and by appeal to the owner, or in other preferable 

 way, should endeavour to effect their preservation. At the same 

 time many correspondents draw attention to the insertion by 

 gardening periodicals of the advertisements of collecting dealers, 

 and express the hope that the amount of revenue derived from these 

 advertisements is not so great as to negative the possibility that 

 the gardening journals may be induced, by discontinuing their 

 insertion, to strike a heavy blow at a process which is depriving 

 many districts of our land of one of their chief natural beauties. 



