232 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



an interest will be awakened in general civic improvement, and the whole 

 country and city landscape will be beautified by the movement. The 

 beauty of the homes, school grounds, roadsides, and public places of the 

 future rests with the children of today and tomorrow. They, as chil- 

 dren, should be made an ally of the community in all public betterment. 

 It is not necessary in planting and preserving wild flowers and shrubs to 

 rob either nature or the public, as nearly every kind of wild flower one 

 would care to grow is already cultivated. In many instances nurserymen 

 can furnish plants cheaper than they can be collected in their wild state, 

 and in most cases tliey can supply varieties that have been exterminated 

 in any given locality, or that never grew there. But the important thing 

 is that the nurserymen propagate the plants. Too much enthusiasm in 

 the study of nature work sometimes results in the extermination of entire 

 plant colonies, as was the case with some New York teachers and children 

 who were found to have uprooted four hundred and ten jack-in-the-pulpits 

 in a small area in the New York Botanical Garden for the purpose of 

 study. So great was the destruction in New York state that certain wild 

 flowers were eliminated from the list of botanical supplies in the New 

 York public schools, among them trailing arbutus, wild columbine, fringed 

 gentian, hepatica, Indian turnip, moccasin flower, wake robin, and wild 

 orchid, and cultivated plants were substituted for wild ferns, Solomon's 

 seal, wild geranium, and others. 



Instead of bringing the plants and blossoms into the school room for 

 demonstration, excursions might be made to the fields and woods one 

 school day in each seasonable month for the purpose of studying the 

 plants in their wild state. In this way the children would develop an in- 

 terest in plant life, and would learn to really know and love wild flowers, 

 which is possible to those only who know the flowers in their natural sur- 

 roundings, and at the same time the outing would be invigorating to both 

 teachers and pupils. It is self-evident that the nature of every animal, the 

 habits and beauty of every bird, butterfly, and flower can be seen and 

 studied to the best advantage under natural conditions. Those who 

 make a practice of studying plants where they grow, acquire that pro- 

 found knowledge and insight which distinguish the scientist from the 

 amateur. Such study tramps should, of course, be conducted by persons 

 competent to instruct the children as to the structure and nature of 

 plants, and the essential principles of their conservation. 



Interest might be aroused in school children through competition by a 

 series of essays bearing on the various phases of the subject of plant life, 

 for which recognition in the form of honors or prizes should be given. 

 The public may be interested and aroused to a conception of the im- 

 portance of preserving and restoring natural beauty by lectures illustrated 

 with plain or colored lantern slides, by publicity and the distribution of 

 literature, (by articles in newspapers and magazines, through the activity 

 of women's clubs, mothers' meetings, boards of education, church decora- 

 tion committees, village improvement societies, and such other k>ca] 

 bodies as are in any way interested in the betterment of local conditions. 

 Moderate funds, would of course, be necessary to carry on the work of 

 providing and distributing literature, the raising of which would have to 



