266 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
one place in Great Britain, still grow well there, in spite 
of or possibly owing to collecting botanists, nor is any case 
of extermination by such persons known. As an example 
may be cited the Cotoneaster vulgaris, at Orme’s Head, 
and in Gloucestershire, Auphorbza stricta. Still it is 
desirable that the law should be altered, because the mere 
fact of a public sanction to the protection of rare plants 
would inspire botanists to guard their treasures for future 
generations. 
(3) The third matter that the club must deal with, in 
order to see how an Association may prove useful, is the 
methods of preservation available where the laws (which 
it is hoped will be passed) must prove deficient or 
inapplicable. 
There is little doubt that protection by law could not be 
extended towards picking, unless possibly in special fields, 
woods and public places not only placarded but enclosed, 
or having definite boundaries, as well. The future laws 
must therefore prove deficient in much frequented spots, 
because in these the continual picking of flowers and the 
trampling down, may bring about a severe diminution, at 
any rate of some rare species. Spots like these, if they 
are to be enclosed, must be carefully demarcated by our 
expert botanists in the way already suggested. It is stated 
that care must be taken in demarcating spots, and for this 
reason. If too many are selected the Association or Club 
or other of the preservers of plants may be considered 
pedantic, and there will be an outcry against the prevention 
of picking flowers. Harm is not usually done by picking, 
unless it is annually incessant, rough, and comprehensive. 
For instance, the case already cited by a member of the 
Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club, of village children 
picking all the handfuls they could of Bee-Orchids on a 
Cotteswold common, would not do much harm, although it 
