National and Educational Interests. 143 



*' But the apparent indifference which they had noted so re- 

 gretfully, veiled a dormant interest which needed only a 

 word to awaken to sympathetic activity. From the outset 

 the project was everywhere received with eager enthusiasm. 

 Responses poured in from all quarters, suggestions, queries, 

 offers of help and counsel, scraps of experience from those 

 who in their own modest way were seeking to foster the flora 

 of their respective localities. So far as seemed requisite for 

 a beginning, the nature of the club's work and the methods of 

 local organization had been outlined. By the help of these 

 hints, clubs were formed in sections the nearest and the most 

 remote ; in Maine, in Illinois, in Pennsylvania, in Tennessee, 

 in Nebraska, in Florida. Before a month's time and almost 

 without effort on the part of its originators, the project of pre- 

 serving our American wild flowers has passed from the realm 

 of possibilities into that of established facts. 



"In the interval which has since elapsed the ground first 

 cursorily surveyed has been gone over more in detail ; sugges- 

 tions have been offered as to the choice of flowers to be per- 

 petuated, the cautions to be observed in their cultivation, the 

 limits and regulations of floral exchange, the formation of 

 plants, nurseries, etc. etc., the whole accompanied by illustra- 

 ted articles descriptive of the best types of our American flora. 



"So long, then, as the oflicial organ of the association. The 

 Home Joui-nal, could be supplied them, enquirers were at no 

 loss how to proceed. But the demand has been so great that, 

 despite the publisher's hearty and faithful co-operation, the 

 association has been unable to keep pace with it. Edition 

 after edition has been exhausted until now, with changes in 

 the oflice of publication, while thousands of letters still wait 

 unanswered, the earlier issues have become altogether unob- 

 tainable. At the same time to republish as current matter the 

 mass of essays, editorials and technical articles which have 

 appeared in them and with which club members are already 

 familiar, was for obvious reasons deemed impracticable. To 

 meet the difficulty there, the association decided to embody 

 in pamphlet form the substance of its most important printed 

 matter, adding thereto whatever seemed essential to a clear 

 comprehension of the character and scope of the undertaking 

 to which it stands pledged. Thus revised, these essays — or- 

 iginally prepared by the association's direction and under its 



