178 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. JAll. No. 1365 



and is still. But the memory of the glorious 

 chord goes with us through the day " to 

 charm, to strengthen, and to teach." Thus it 

 was that Professor Sedgwick lived and died 

 and stays forever in our hearts 



Geoege C. Whipple 



OUR DISAPPEARING WILD PLANTS^ 



The destruction of the vast herds of bison 

 on our western plains, the total extinction of 

 the formerly abundant wild pigeon, the ex- 

 termination of many of the most beautiful of 

 our wild birds, all this is a matter of common 

 knowledge. How many of us, however, realize 

 that the same rapacious spirit of destruction 

 has seriously endangered our wild plant life, 

 until many of our most desirable plants have 

 actually disappeared from wide areas of our 

 coimtry ? 



The earliest Europeans in America found 

 in the New World a flora marvelously rich in 

 its abundance of species and indescribably 

 beautiful in its display of attractive plants. 

 Since the time of the earliest settlers this 

 wonderful flora has suffered a gradual deple- 

 tion imtil at present the flora in many regions 

 is a mere relic of the past with hardly a sug- 

 gestion of its pristine loveliness. The appre- 

 ciation of mankind was expressed in an odd 

 manner indeed when he removed the hand- 

 somest of the plants, allowing the dull and 

 less attractive si)ecies to take their place. 

 This painful tragedy has been enacted right 

 here in the vicinity of Washington, where the 

 formerly luxuriant display of laurel, rhodo- 

 dendron, holly, ground pines, and arbutus has 

 in many places been supplanted by weedy and 

 generally unattractive species. All the plants 

 named are almost extinct within a wide radius 

 of the city and the wild orchids, spring 

 beauties, bluebells, and many other species of 

 rare grace and beauty are vanishing rapidly, 

 and will soon live in memory only imless 

 active steps are taken to save them. 



The causes leading to their disappearance 



1 An address delivered Tvitli illustrations before 

 the Botanical Society of Washington, T>. C, Oc- 

 tober 5, 1920. 



are complex, but by far the greatest con- 

 tributing factor is the unrestricted, indis- 

 criminate, thoughtless picking to which these 

 beauteous plants are subjected. Each spring 

 witnesses the descent of legions of thought- 

 less flower-gatherers who ravish the flora with 

 hardly a thought that the tearing away of 

 the flowers robs most plants of their only 

 methods of reproduction. These misguided 

 hordes gather huge armfuls and basketfuls 

 of hepatica, anemone, bloodroot and dozens 

 of other rapidly-wilting plants, which are en- 

 joyed for the moment but are soon strewn 

 along the highways and byways in withered, 

 unsightly masses, mute evidence of wanton 

 destruction of nature's most perfect gifts. 

 The process of extermination has of late been 

 largely aided and widely extended by that new 

 enemy of our flora, the automobile, pene- 

 trating into regions formerly remote or inac- 

 cessible and returning loaded with huge piles 

 of drooping, withered branches of flowering 

 dogwood, redbud, and service berry, torn out 

 by trespassers who had neither moral nor 

 legal justication for such disfiguration. Who 

 has not seen great branches of dogwood and 

 bunches of other wild flowers offered for sale 

 by irresponsible street-merchants? Within a 

 half-hour during as automobile drive while 

 the redbud and flowering dogwood were in 

 bloom, the speaker -was accosted twelve times 

 along Conduit Eoad near Washington, D. C, 

 by boyish flower venders offering their ill- 

 gotten wares. The accumulated destruction 

 of years will be great until it is inevitable 

 that the handsomest of our species will dis- 

 appear. 



Must these wondrous gifts of nature live 

 only in song and story for the countless on- 

 coming generations? Is it fair that we dis- 

 sipate this great natural heritage, robbing 

 posterity of the pleasures derived from our 

 flowers which we now so fully enjoy? It 

 would seem that the doctrine of the greatest 

 good for the greatest number demands that we 

 accept this rich birthright in guardian spirit, 

 to be safeguarded and preserved for the enjoy- 

 ment of those who come after us; that each 

 generation act as trustees of the surroimding 



