Conference of Delegates. 25 



comitant clearing', draining- and building. Among avoidable 

 causes of loss the more important are the thoughtless excesses 

 of children, tourists, and botanists, and the work of trade 

 collectors. The demands of artists have led to much local 

 extermination of the sea-holly, and the fruitless endeavours of 

 amateurs to cultivate our terrestial orchids seriously endanger 

 some species. . Nurserymen, who certainly do not cultivate 

 them, offer the latter for sale, just as clergymen and others in 

 the Lake District, or other districts still rich in ferns, advertise 

 collections of these plants. It is mainly plants such as primroses 

 and ferns, which can be obtained in large quantities, that appeal 

 to the trade collectors ; but these men, who now range far 

 afield from London or other large towns, are often merely the 

 employes of large wholesale firms. Botanists, w^ho ought to 

 know better, are often recklessly wholesale in their collecting-, 

 rooting- up numerous specimens of non-variable species partly 

 for the purpose of exchange. Even the gathering- of the 

 blossom may endanger the continuance of species, such as 

 Blackstonia perfoliata, which are annual, by preventing the 

 formation of seed. 



' Among protective measures are the concealment and enclo- 

 sure of the localities of rarities, the cultivation of wild forms, 

 transplanting them from places where they are in danger, 

 educational or moral methods, and legislation. Enclosure, 

 unless a keeper be emplo3'ed, may only direct attention to the 

 locality of some rarity : it must be costly, and can only be ot 

 very limited application. Much may be done by the cultivation 

 of rarities in g^ardens near by, so as to supply tourists, as Mr. 

 Correvon grows edelweiss and other alpines at Geneva. Small 

 gardens near Ben Lawes, in the Lake District and at the 

 Lizard, would be very valuable. Ultimately we must depend 

 mainly upon the development of a general sentiment in favour 

 of the conservation of our natural beauties, and nothing- will 

 conduce to this end more than educational measures. We 

 must educate our teachers. A leaflet might be distributed 

 among them stating the case ; and, perhaps, ' a reader' might 

 be prepared interming^ling pleas for plant protection with inter- 

 esting accounts of plants and plant life. The clergy, or other 

 managers of school treats, mig-ht well represent to the children 

 beforehand such simple principles as that one cannot both eat 

 one's cake and have it ; that some flowers should be left to form 

 seed to grow into new plants; and that some should be left for 

 others' enjo3'ment. 



1906 Jannary i. 



