124 Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 



over a year ago from such authorities as Dr. Harold C. Bryant, 

 economic ornithologist of the University of California, and director 

 of research education for the Fish and Game Commission of Cali- 

 fornia ; and Dr. Joseph Grinnell, director of the Museum of Verte- 

 brate Zoology of the University of California, and one of the most 

 noted authorities on bird life in America ; also Dr. Frederick W. 

 D'Evlyn, president of the Audubon Association of the Pacific and 

 head of the National Children's Pets Exhibitions Association of 

 America, will be of value as authoritative statements from reliable 

 sources : 



BERKELEY, Nov. 14, 1919. 



I am greatly interested in your timely endeavor to conserve the flora of 

 our State. We have heard much of the conservation of forests, water power, 

 and fish and game, but practically nothing about the conservation of other 

 of our natural resources. Certain outstanding resources are signaled out 

 for attention and others are apparently overlooked. Laws protect our 

 national forests; but, as you have wisely pointed out, no laws protect the 

 Toyon berry, huckleberry, or other shrubs, which are fast disappearing be- 

 cause of ruthless destruction ; nor has public sentiment been sufficiently 

 aroused to take cognizance of the threatened extermination of these shrubs 

 and some of the medicinal herbs. Surely our State is awakening to the real 

 values which pertain to our natural resources and which emphasize the con- 

 servation of them. Wtih such a realization should come the desire to save 

 many areas in their natural state. Needless to say, this would mean the 

 careful protection of every form of life within the area, both plant and 

 animal. Only through this method can we expect to retain the flora and 

 fauna intact. Both from a scientific standpoint and from a sentimental stand- 

 point we must save a breeding stock of native plants and animals. 



Here is to the day when an awakened public sentiment will demand a 

 conservation of all natural resources, that we ourselves and future generations 

 also may be benefited. 



Very truly yours, 



H. C. BRYANT. 



BERKELEY, DEC. 15, 1919. 



You have my warmest sympathy in your efforts toward securing pro- 

 tection of native shrubbery against annihilation within the area adjacent to 

 our large centers of population. I feel sure that your line of work is just 

 what is needed, namely, the setting forth of the facts and dangers; with a 

 knowledge of these, I believe that popular sentiment will shortly come to 

 disapprove so strongly of the custom of unchecked despoliation that the 

 problem will solve itself. Here, as with game conservation and songbird 

 protection, it is a matter of education. 



The question of berry supply for the part of our bird population which 

 depends upon such food is an important one here in the Bay Region, where 

 at best berry-producing shrubs are not very plentiful. I am quite sure that 

 a reduction in the sum total of birds would follow upon the complete eradi- 

 cation of these plants upon which the birds depend at a time of the year when 

 food suitable to them is scarcest. 



I think this is a perfectly valid reason in itself for the strict conserva- 

 tion of our native Toyon, elderberry and the like, in the Bay Region. 



Very truly yours, 



J. GRINNELL. 



SAN FRANCISCO, DEC. 19, 1919. 



Few incidents in active service create a more profound realism than the 

 roll call after battle. The silence, the unanswered name. That blankless 

 moment that officially records something that is no more, an entity that has 

 now only the heritage of a memory. In our wild life, and its struggles for 

 its rights to exist, a roll call would oftentimes reveal an equally arresting 



