21 



adopted. After stating four objects as the investi- 

 gation of the natural history of the county, the 

 publicatioa of the results of such work, the 

 dissemination of information and the formation of 

 a library and m'.iseum, they add as a fifth object, 

 " the diacouragement of the practice of removinf,' 

 rare plants from the localities of which they 

 are chai*acteristic, and of exterminatint; 

 rare birds, fish and other animal;^." 

 Some of you may have seen a letter which 

 I wrote some months ajjo discussing the possibility 

 of legal action against depredators under the ex- 

 isting laws or t lie desirability of new legislation. 

 Lord Clifford, the Chairman of the United Devon 

 Association, kiodly pointed out that in that letter 

 I understated the possibilities of the existing law, 

 and the recent successful action of his Association 

 has demonstrated that this was so. According to 

 the old narrow interpretation of the law of trespass 

 it was necessary to prove damage to fences or cul- 

 tivated crops, wild plants, such as uncultivated 

 mushrooms, blackberries, or wild ferns or flowers, 

 not being protected ; but Lord Clifford pointed out 

 that, if it can be shown that the articles removed 

 have a market value, it is not necessary to show 

 that they are cultivated. Accordingly in Febru- 

 ary last, the Wonford magistrate^, at Exeter 

 sentenced two men to two months' and six weeks' 

 hard labour respectively for damaging ground to 

 the value of ^5 and removing ^8 or .£10 

 worth of fern-roots. The Westera Counties' 

 Ferns and VVild Flowers' Preservation Committee 

 of the United Devon Association, besides advertis- 

 ing appeals in the local papers, have now issued a 

 poster, *' To all whom it may concern," on which 

 these " convictions " and the names of " The 

 Devon County Council " and Lord " Clifford " 

 appear in conspicuous type, calling attention to 

 the " Illegal removal of roots of ferns, plants, and 

 wild flowers from the lanes, hedges, and fields of 

 Devonshire," whereby many beautiful spots in the 

 County have become denuded of their natural 

 charms, to the detriment and disfigurement of the 

 property " and giving " notice that all offenders 

 are liable to prosecution." One of the main 

 difficulties here, as also to a great extent in the 

 case of the Wild Birds Protection Act, is to get 

 the occupiers of Ipnd to prosecute. In Devonshire 

 the energetic Association has roused their county 

 to a sense of the danger to their pockets by the 

 simple syllogism that the well-being of the county 

 depends upon tourists, tourists come to see the 

 natural beauties of the county, and. therefore, 

 with the destruction of these beauties 

 the prosperity of every hotel or town is 

 imperilled. There, too, the hearty co-operation 

 not only of the magistracy but also of the police 

 has been secured. It may prove difficult to rouse 

 this sense of danger or to secure this co-operation 

 elsewhere. The attention of Lord Avebury, 

 President of the Selborne Society, having been 

 directed to the matter, opinions were collected as 

 to the desirability or practicability of fresh legisla- 

 tion on the subject. Did we follow the lead of 

 Switzerland and Italy as to their rarer Alpine 

 plants, this would mean the scheduling of species 

 — in which the Wild Birds Act affords a precedent 

 which is almost tantamount to a warning how not 



to do it. Magistrates would, I think, be reluctant 

 to convict a man for gathering say Thlaspi 

 perfoliatiim or Gladiolus Ulyricus if he protested 

 that he thought that the one was chickweed, or 

 that he was gathering the other as Digitalis for 

 the herb doctors. A more practical suggestion, I 

 think, is that which I have received from Mrs. 

 Lemon, the hon. secretary of the Society tor the 

 Protection of Birds, which is that we might have 

 protected areas — areas in which all plants might 

 be protected — and that those properties which are 

 in the hands of the National Trust might be the 

 first to be so d*?clared. This seems to me to be 

 quite feasible.whilst, as the National Trust estates 

 are at present but small, I would suggest that 

 some landowners might, by notices, make their 

 estates equally protected areas ; merely, that is, 

 announcing their intention — under the existing 

 law — to prosecute depredators. Any fresh legisla- 

 tion would seem to me, therefore, to be only a 

 little less unnecessary than it would be difficult. 



THK PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF PLANTS, 

 sr MR. E. A. MARTIN, F.G.S. 



Mr. Edward A. Maitin, F.G- S., member of the 

 Council of the Selborne Society, discussed *' The 

 Protection and Preservation of Plants." The dis- 

 appearance of the rare plants, he observed, was 

 regretted only by the purely scientific, and it must 

 be admitted that their own predecessors were the 

 very people who bad been mainly instrumental, by 

 their own selfishness, in bringing about the exter- 

 mination which all botanists now, almost without 

 exception, sc greatly lamented. But putting aside 

 rarities, and considering now the many common 

 wild flowers which can be met with elsewhere, 

 what security have we that these are not fast 

 travelling on the road which will lead them into 

 the ranks of those which are already scheduled 

 " rare.'* It is in our keeping that we, whose minds 

 are at last alive to disastrous possibilities in the 

 futuie, see to it that we do all that lies in 

 our power to remove any tendency towards this 

 road. Enormous numbersofprimrosesare gathered 

 every April, which twenty-five yearsago would have 

 attracted but little attention. Is this destruction 

 more than counterbalanced by the fertility of the 

 plant-' Or is there a decrease in its numbers? 

 Certain it is that it has become 

 within man's memory extinct in many places, but 

 such places are those that are in close proximity 

 to the towns. Are our country districts as prolific 

 as ever r Not only does the primrose have to 

 provide the symbol of a political passion, but its 

 roots are subjected to wholesale grubbing up in 

 ordei to decorate suburban back-gardens, no 

 matter what the soil of such back-gardens may be, 

 and whether adapted or not to the growth of this 

 copse and hedge-loving plant. But many wild 

 flowers are subjected in the spring to immense 

 destruction by children. Just now one sees, and 

 could have seen during the last month and more, 

 children returning to town laden with enormous 

 sheaves of wild hyacinths. And yet of the num- 

 ber plucked how few ever reach the homes they 

 were intended to beautify ; how frequently at the 

 close ©f a tiring day the children throw them away 

 rather than trouble to carry them further, . . . 

 Direct legislative protection is, if not impossible. 



