224 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



The attention of the public is slowly being drawn to this wanton de- 

 struction of wild life; it must be followed by education. Some of our 

 western states are encouraging children to raise wild flowers in home and 

 school gardens, to gather the seed and sow it again in woodland, marsh 

 or meadow, to increase declining species. 



It is time we were getting a vision of what this country will be robbed 

 of its natural resources, plant and animal life. It is not enough that we 

 cease our wanton destruction, we need to replenish the earth. May Iowa 

 become a sanctuary where her wild plant life is secure. Iowa Forestry 

 and Conservation Association, Report 1914-15, pp. 75-9. 



RELATION OF THE COMMUNITY TO THE PRESERVATION OF 



WILD PLANTS. 



By Henry S. Conard. 



Those of us who live in temperate climes have a natural heritage we 

 would do well to appreciate. That heritage is the world of wild flowers 

 that brighten the vivid green backgrounds of our woods, thickets, and 

 fields. We are too apt to think that the greatest beauty of the plant 

 world has been lavished upon the unhealthy tropics. It is true that 

 many of the most gorgeous flowers of our gardens and greenhouses are of 

 tropical or subtropical origin the begonias, cannas, geraniums, and the 

 most exquisite orchids. Travelers go into raptures over the tropical 

 vegetation. But notice that it is the vegetation that they speak of, not 

 the flowers. They do not tell of the endless fields of verdant grain and 

 grass, flecked with cloud shadows, and billowy with a passing breeze. 

 Nor do they tell of miles of brilliant colored flowers lining the highways 

 and river bottoms. This is the luxuriance that they dwell upon the 

 huge leaves, the masses of foliage, the dense jungle of trees and shrubs 

 and vines. Is not the botanist who goes to Florida or Southern California 

 bitterly disappointed to find that south of Virginia there is no grass, and 

 that the hills round about Los Angeles are beset with bayonet-like yuccas 

 and spiny cacti? 



No, the tropical forest, like the dark coniferous timber of our mild 

 northwest, is too dense to permit of any great amount of bloom. Many of 

 the trees and vines of the tropics have showy flowers, and bear them in 

 great profusion the poincianas, the allamandas, etc. but conditions are 

 so stimulating to plant life that a host of species of trees, shrubs, vines, 

 and herbs are crowding each other for room. These forests frequently 

 contain over fifty species of trees. The novice in such a wood has dif- 

 ficulty in finding two trees of the same kind; they seem to be all different 

 This is the usual condition in the tropics. It is thus quite impossible to 

 find any great continuity of color, other than the dark and shiny green of 

 thick and leathery leaves, whose polished surfaces reflect the sun like 

 bits of metal. 



No, my friends, the glory of an earth covered with unbroken verdure, 

 and adorned with acres and miles of brilliant flowers is given only for 



