CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. b3 
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 employés of large wholesale firms. 
Botanists, who 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 which are annual, such as 
Blackstonia perfoliata, by preventing the formation of seed. 
Among protective measures are the concealment and enclosure of the 
localities of rarities, the cultivation of wild forms, transplanting them from 
places where they are in danger, educational or moral methods, and legisla- 
tion. Enclosure, unless a keeper be employed, may only direct attention to 
the locality of some rarity : it must be costly, and can be only of very limited 
application. Much may be done by the cultivation of rarities in gardens 
near by, so as to supply tourists, as M. Correvon grows edelweiss and 
other Alpines at Geneva. Small gardens near Ben Lawers, 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 per- 
haps a ‘reader’ might be prepared intermingling pleas for plant protec- 
tion with interesting accounts of plants and plant-life. The clergy, or 
other managers of school-treats, might 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’ enjoyment. 
As the results of education must be tardy, and the existing law is 
inadequate, legislation appears necessary. It is at present necessary 
to prove damage : it is difficult to secure the co-operation of landowners 
and the police ; and the powers of the Home Secretary and of the County 
Councils as to the making of bye-laws are not sufliciently clear. It is 
proposed to introduce a Bill on the lines of the Wild Birds’ Protection 
Acts, applying only to persons over fourteen years of age as principals, 
and exempting occupiers of land and those authorised by them, but 
authorising the scheduling of species, districts, or whole counties. 
The Rev. R. Ashington Bullen, on discussion being invited, said there 
were two points which had not been touched upon by the Professor. One 
was the prevalence of incendiary fires. He had reason to believe that 
the whortleberry, which had been trying to grow in his district (near 
Woking), had been entirely destroyed during this last summer. His 
daughter had found some good specimens of this little plant, almost 
a stranger in that particular part of the country, which in the course 
of a few years would have acclimatised itself, but which was now com- 
pletely destroyed. The other point which the Professor had left out 
was the mischief done by golf-links. At Reigate a beautiful feature of 
the country had been destroyed in the filling up of a bog, which doubt- 
less had also resulted in the destruction of the sundew . 
Mr. W. Watts (Manchester Geological Society) said the district from 
which he came suffered immensely from the depredations alluded to by 
