72 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



the river banks and many roadsides ought to be made 

 sanctuaries of this kind. The railroads maintain with 

 some truth that the undergrowth must be kept down to 

 prevent disastrous fires, but it is quite possible to indicate 

 the decorative plants and except them from the annual 

 mowing. A number of interesting plants, owing to the 

 special conditions under which they grow, probably must 

 be protected in their present habitats, but this in a ma- 

 jority of cases is entirely feasible. In other cases, rare 

 plants may be removed to protected areas. 



Even with adequate laws there is still needed an ef- 

 fort to interest land-owners in protection. Every farm 

 woodlot should become a protected area until the land 

 is needed for something else. It should be fairly easy to 

 induce the farmer to post his entire farm and perhaps 

 to design a special notice for the purpose. When his 

 attention is drawn to the interest the botanist has in some 

 rarity on his lands, he is generally as much in favor of 

 protecting it as anybody. 



It is probable that there will always be numerous 

 areas in which flower picking may go on, but even here 

 there is need for education in the selection of the flowers 

 and in the proper manner of gathering. Emphasis should 

 be laid on the fact that a few well-chosen blossoms are 

 far superior to a larger number gathered with less dis- 

 crimination. The ignorant and unthinking are ever im- 

 pressed by mere size and reason that if a dozen are good, 

 a hundred are better. It is a failing that all are prone to. 

 Do we not always mention the size of our home town be- 

 fore mentioning its intellectual citizens? Children and 

 adults, too, for that matter, should be taught to select 

 only the fresh and newly-opened specimens, leaving those 

 that are past their prime to reproduce the plants. Merely 

 to instruct the public in the proper way to gather flowers 

 will go a long way toward protecting the landscape from 

 devastation. The true lover of flowers rarely returns 

 from an excursion laden with specimens. The planting of 

 memorial trees and the decorating of our great trans- 

 continental highways with flowering plants should do 

 much to direct the attention of the public toward a right 

 attitude regarding the wild flora. 



