452 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 



prepared for presentation to Parliament but the War stopped legislative 

 action. More recently ' Flora's League ' initiated by Sir Maurice Abbot 

 Anderson has popularised the idea, and the Society for the Promotion of 

 Nature Reserves works to the same end. In 1931 the Wild Plant Con- 

 servation Board of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England 

 (C.P.R.E.) was appointed. It represents a large number of interested 

 Societies, Councils and Institutions, and meets at intervals for study and 

 discussion of relevant questions. I am indebted to the Secretary, Mr. 

 H. G. Griffin, for details of reports of the work, to some of which I shall 

 refer. 



The subject of Nature Reserves was so admirably dealt with by Sir 

 David Prain in his address to you at the York Meeting in 1932 on ' Local 

 Societies and the Conservation of Plant Life ' that I need only refer you 

 to this. Those of you who have visited Nature Reserves at home or 

 abroad will appreciate their value as conserving special types of vegetation. 

 The more we can do in this way the better, but the conservation of our 

 native flora as a whole is a wider problem and needs the help of all in 

 fostering a love for wild nature and in developing a public feeling for its 

 protection. 



Legislation and Education are two methods of approach, each of which 

 have occupied the attention of the Conservation Board. 



Under the Local Government Act of 1888 County Councils are em- 

 powered to adopt bye-laws for the conservation of wild plants. The 

 most recent form of bye-law approved by the Home Office reads as 

 follows : — 



' No person shall without lawful authority uproot any ferns, primroses 

 or other plants growing in any road, lane, roadside waste, roadside bank 

 or hedge, common or other place to which the public have access.' 



Bye-laws have been adopted by about fifty County Councils and a number 

 of Town Councils. In May 1935 a circular letter from the Chairman of the 

 Board was sent to each County Council urging that the fullest possible 

 publicity be given to the bye-law and also the adoption of adequate measures 

 to enforce it. A large number of replies indicated that wide publicity was 

 being given by means of the local press, exhibition of notices at police 

 stations and other suitable places, and distribution of copies to Urban 

 and Rural District Councils, Schools, Boy Scout and Girl Guide organi- 

 sations, etc. Prosecutions for uprooting were also reported. 



Schedules of plants recommended for special protection in individual 

 Counties, prepared by Mr. H. W. Pugsley, have also been considered and 

 distributed by the Board. 



The work of the Board has evoked some criticism, especially as regards 

 its advocacy of the bye-law forbidding uprooting. It has been objected 

 that this involves hardship to students of the flora and also prohibits the 

 uprooting of herbs for use as drugs. 



As regards students, a plant can be studied without uprooting it. We 

 are in fact coming to realise that plants may best be studied as they grow 

 and especially in their natural environment. It is far more educative to 

 study a few plants in this way than to pull them up, cram them into a tin 

 and take them home to press for an herbarium. A great deal of informa- 

 tion about a plant may be obtained without uprooting it and if such a 



