The Conservation of Wild Flowers 



Decoration from pliolof/rajths (bij Munj (j/iitliid Dhkcrsoii ) of a feir wild Jloicvrs irliich stand in 



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lirrri/, ozalca, and frimicd (jcntiun arc in dixprralr nicd,for then arc iilrt'odi/ nrorlii 



v.rtiuri orcr hirf/r xcrtionx of the coinitri/ irlicrc jircrioiixlii (dtundiDil 



THERE a]ipearcfl in the JS'civ York 

 Tribune of May 5, 1901, the follow- 

 ing unsigned notice: "Now that 

 spring is really here, the picnicking parties 

 are invading the woods north of the Harlem, 

 and have begun the annual systematic de- 

 struction of a large proportion of all wild 

 flowers within reach. The authorities of the 

 Botanical Garden are on the lookout for 

 them, and within their own precincts will 

 guard the blossoms as thoroughly as possible 

 under a well-planned system ; but the rest of 

 the Bronx will be at their mercy, and that 

 means death to many a poor little plant. It 

 is not that these ruthless explorers fail to 

 appreciate the beauty of flowers — they 'just 

 love them' in all probability. The trouble 

 arises from their ignorance of the extent of 

 the damage they do, and from an utter in- 

 ability to comprehend that a flower or any- 

 thing in the vegetable world has rights which 

 the lord of creation himself is bound to re- 

 spect. Thanks to the picnickers and alleged 

 botanists, the arhutus, loveliest of spring 



blossoms, has been almost exterminated in 

 the Bronx region. Its delicate pink and white 

 used once upon a time to hide under the 

 leaves all through the northern woods in that 

 part of the suburbs ; now it may be found 

 only in spots where it commands less enthu- 

 siastic admiration. The mountain laurel has 

 shared a similar fate." 



In July of the same year, The House 

 Beautiful had several notices on this subject. 

 As there ap})eared to be considerable inter- 

 est aroused and many rjuestions asked, I com- 

 ])ile<l all the notices I could find, including 

 some English ones from the Daily Mail and 

 the Journal of Botany, and printed in Tor- 

 reya for August, 1901, an article on "Van- 

 ishing Wild Flowers." Immediately follow- 

 ing the publication of these notices the Misses 

 Olivia and Caroline Phelps Stokes, who had 

 l)een members of the New York Botanical 

 Garden since 1898, presented to that insti- 

 tution a sum of $3000 to be used for the '"in- 

 vestigation and preservation of our native 

 plants." In April, 1902, Dr. N. L. Britton, 



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