National and Educational Interests. 141 



if it should so desire, appeal to Congress from the determina- 

 tion of the Secretary of the Interior. If the next Congress 

 shall not direct such sum to be paid it shall be covered into 

 the Treasury. And the Secretary of the Interior is hereby 

 charged with the proper administration of this law. 



"Sfx-. 5. That the Secretary of the Interior shall annually 

 report to Congress the disbursements which have been made 

 in all the states and territories, and also whether the appro- 

 priation of any state or territory has been withheld, and if 

 so, the reasons therefor. 



''Sec. 6. Congress may at any time amend, suspend, or re- 

 peal any or all of the provisions of this act." 



American Wild- flower Club. It is gratifying to know that 

 at least some organized attempt has been made to protect the 

 native plants of the country. The American Wild-flower 

 Club was organized a year or two ago, and its labors appear 

 to meet with favor in all directions. The history and scope 

 of the organization are told in the following extracts from 

 one of its publications : 



"Its raison d' etre was the desire on the part of an American 

 woman, compelled by circumstances to make her home in 

 England and reproached persistently by returned British tour- 

 ists with the unbeautiful aspect of 'civilized' American land- 

 scape — its barren pastures and weedy hillslopes, its desolate 

 waysides and despoiled thickets — to see if something could 

 not be done, if not to re-stock denuded localities, at least to 

 avert so far as possible the extermination of an indigenous 

 flora from regions where it remained as yet unawakened. 

 Her notes on the subject, forwarded to a Philadelphia friend, 

 were read and discussed in a circle of flower lovers in that 

 city, the result of the conference being a determination to un- 

 dertake the preservation of our better wild growths in meth- 

 odical fashion through the institution of a system of local clubs, 

 which, knit together, should constitute a national association. 

 While however, the project transmitted from London as a 

 suggestion, thus took definite form in Philadelphia, its authors 

 were alike agreed that the Philadelphia atmosphere, or indeed 

 that of any great metropolis, was not suited to its fuller growth 

 and development. In the words of one of their number, the 

 perpetuation of American wild flowers was a work pertaining 

 essentially to the country. Establish its headquarters in the 



