454 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 



roadside herbage, and that the workmen were discriminating between 

 injurious and other plants. 



The Conservation Board has also considered means for the protection 

 of wild plants on privately owned property and a deputation of its members, 

 with representatives of other interested bodies, was received by Sir John 

 Gilmour on behalf of the Home Secretary, in May 1933. The Board 

 suggested that the model bye-law should be strengthened to cover privately 

 owned land. The case for the Board and those associated with it was 

 presented by the standing Counsel of the C.P.R.E. who showed the 

 inadequacy of existing methods for dealing with the matter, namely 

 ' Malicious Injury to Property Act,' Larceny Acts and Trespass, and it 

 was proposed to meet the case by strengthening the model bye-law. In a 

 carefully argued reply the Secretary of State regretted that he was unable 

 to meet the Board's suggestions, the main effect of which would be the 

 protection of private owners from trespassers, and this was beyond the 

 power of the Municipal Corporations Act. The Secretary of State 

 suggested the insertion of the word ' primroses ' after ferns to get over 

 the ejusdem generis rule brought in by the use of the words ' or other 

 plants ' after ' ferns,' and regretted that this slightly amended form was 

 the utmost that can properly be allowed under the present law. This 

 latest form of the bye-law has already been accepted by a number of 

 County and other Councils. 



Picking of wild flowers for sale is not prohibited by this bye-law, but 

 in reply to an inquiry from a member of the Board, a well-known Covent 

 Garden salesman stated that everything possible was done in Covent 

 Garden to discourage picking and marketing of wild flowers. They 

 refused to handle wild daffodils and blue-bells. 



Prevention of uprooting of primroses, ferns and other wild plants for sale 

 needs special vigilance, but we have reports of occasional prosecutions. 

 Local warden societies would be a deterrent, and also posting of notices 

 which might intimate results of prosecutions, as used to be done on the rail- 

 way stations. Folks should refuse to buy roots from gipsies or hawkers who 

 have almost certainly stolen the plants or dug them up on common land. 



I do not think children's wild flower classes at local shows are harmful. 

 One specimen each of a dozen plants with their common names is generally 

 asked for, and my own experience is that children collect only common plants 

 and they do not uproot them. If there are rare or otherwise protected 

 species in the neighbourhood these could be barred in the instructions. 

 It seems a pity to check an interest in Nature on the part of the children. 



But at best legislation is only the next best thing. In an ideal com- 

 munity where no one wants for himself what should be for the common 

 enjoyment, legislation will be unnecessary. Meanwhile education of the 

 community is necessary. 



Education of the average adult to respect our wild flowers may seem well- 

 nigh hopeless. He is not interested. And thoughtlessness, even in those 

 who should know better, is a frequent cause of damage. About the same 

 time last spring two reports came to my notice. A field in the west of 

 England, purple with fritillaries in the morning became merely a green 

 sward towards the end of the day. It had been thrown open to the 

 public, at id. per head, who were allowed to gather bunches of flowers, 



