CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 753 



' The second part of the Committee's endeavours would be to secure the pre- 

 servation of rare plants (which might be scheduled in the Bill proposed) by 

 securing reservations for them. In a similar way, reservations should also be 

 obtained for special types of vegetation (plant associations). 



' Still another piece of work which the Section should attempt is the collection 

 of information on which future endeavours could be based. 



' Your Council made a grant to the Section and empowered it to appoint a 

 General Committee and to accept contributions of money to be spent on its own 

 particular work.' 



My own impression is that although individuals may get ideas from discus- 

 sions, general action does not, as a general rule, follow, and I therefore appeal 

 to all present to do everything in their power now and afterwards to offer all 

 the help possible to bring about a better state of affairs, which we all in our 

 hearts desire. 



Mr. W. P. D. Stebbing agreed that many of the destructive agencies brought 

 before the Conference by Mr. Webb were becoming of supreme importance to 

 those interested in the British flora. One could not help noticing the great 

 waste of plant-life purely for amusement going on in the neighbourhood of large 

 towns, and the way at present common but bright-coloured flowers were torn 

 up by trippers. Many must have seen the growing loss by the country-side of 

 marketable plants for sale by hawkers. There was a continuous robbery from 

 the Surrey woodlands of honeysuckle ; and in recent years in the same county 

 wholesale robbery of holly by men with sacks and carts had, unhappily, become 

 common just before Christmas. A tree covered with berries was noted in day- 

 light. At dark the thieves with their apparatus descended, and if the coast 

 was clear, stripped the tree bare. Golf clubs certainly were responsible for 

 much destruction on public heaths and other spaces. The speaker instanced 

 the present state of Walton Heath in Surrey, and the formerly interesting 

 gravel-pitted tract of country now occupied by the West Middlesex Golf Club 

 at Hanwell. In Scotland, in the praiseworthy efforts to reduce grouse-disease, 

 probably much interesting plant-life was destroyed in the recommended sys- 

 tematic burning of the moors. Even the preservation of game was liable to 

 limit the natural growth of interesting plants in woodlands. Landowners did 

 not like to put restrictions on their tenants (shooting or otherwise) after the 

 land had been let. He had in his mind at the moment a colony of lily of the 

 valley in a wood let to a shooting tenant, which the gamekeepers and their 

 friends never allowed to flower in peace. Much might be done by corporations 

 which became possessed of tracts of wild land in the way of sanctuaries, when 

 it was known that certain interesting plants which everyone wanted to pick 

 grew about it. Even in towns, although sanctuaries cannot be reserved, colonies 

 can be made. One of the most delightful wild features in our London parks 

 at the present time is the five-year-old natural-looking pond in the Outer Circle 

 of the Regent's Park, with its glorious collection of free-growing water and bank- 

 side plants. 



Mr. W. Whitaker said the Borough of Croydon had made use of its powers 

 in the management of its open spaces. Determining to put a stop to the whole- 

 sale removal of heather from the Addington Hills, it had instituted a series 

 of prosecutions, and had succeeded in having fines inflicted on some dozens of 

 those who for their own selfish ends were gradually stripping the area of one 

 of its great glories. 



Miss Crosfield (Holmesdale N. H. Club) gave some information about Colley 

 Hill, many acres of which were now preserved as an open space by the Borough 

 of Reigate, and of which it was hoped that a good many more would be obtained 

 through the efforts now being made by the National Trust. She said that 

 colonies of the bee-orchis still existed near by. 



The Vice-Chairman, on behalf of the Conference, thanked Mr. Webb for 

 his paper. 



