cies that were abundant a few yearsago could 
now hardly be found, 
The lilies, especially the Turk’s cap (we 
have very few Canada lilies),seem to suffer 
chiefly from the individual intent upon mak- 
ing a boquet the size of a bushel basket, 
Their own conspicuosness is their chief 
enemy, as it is with some other plants; when 
man is taken into account. 
We have known of many little patches of 
orchids, such as 7zfu/aria and the moccasin 
flower, that have been destroyed by fire, and 
we have seen localities picked clean of the 
flowers of the last named species. We once 
saw three children vieing with one another as 
to who could cellect the greatest number of 
moccasin flowers and the biggest 
azaleas. 
The wild columbine is nearly extinct on 
the Island, there being still a few plants at 
Tottenville Probably all of the destroying 
agents mentioned helped in the reduction ofits 
numbers. 
boquet of 
The Hepaticas suffer much from the con- 
stant wood fires, and all of the flowers in 
sight are often plucked. 
The erect Clematis (C. ochroleuca) on Todt 
Hill and on the sandy point of land at Watch- 
ogue, is one of the plants that should be saved 
in particular, for the reason that it is at pres- 
ent unknown elsewhere in the vicinity of New 
York, Itis not reported from the whole 
State of New Jersey The Country Club as 
tenant, and the president of our Borough as 
owner of the soilon Todt Hill, is each in a 
position to save it to the community. 
The evergreen holly used to be abundant 
on the Island, and there were trees of good 
size, on Richnond hill. But, “if Idon’t take 
it some one else will”, was the motto of the 
neighbors, and every Christmas time saw it 
grow less. Until lately there were many 
little trees springing up on the hill, but last 
year the underbrush was cleared away and 
the ground burned over. 
The flowering dog wood suffers from hav- 
ing many of its branches broken off in May 
and June, and lately some one cut most of 
30 
these trees from the woods on the westerly 
side of Silver Lake; land which will perhaps 
some day be included in the proposed park. 
Trailing arbutus used to grow in abund- 
ance near Huguenot and Richmond Valley, 
but it has literally been carried away. In 
several instances it has been destroyed by 
fire as well. When one considers how diffi- 
cult it is to make the arbutus grow, in fact no 
one has been entirely successful in trans- 
planting it to any extent, it will be realized 
that itis easier for man to build a sky-scraping 
office building, or some other considerable 
monument of engineering skill, than it is to 
readjust the nicely balanced conditions of na- 
ture, when they have once been destroyed. 
I have seen a swamp burn on our Island 
for a week, the result of a careless fire, and 
at the end of that time more damage had 
been wrought to nature than could be repair- 
ed in probably several centuries of growth and 
decay. What then is to be done to save our 
wild flowers and plants? The answer would 
seem to be that nothing can be done except in 
the way of educating popular opinionand taste, 
No doubt one of the most effective ways of 
doing this would be to bring the matter to the 
notice of the teachers in the public schools, 
when the enormity of setting fire to the woods 
and of pulling up and indiscriminately pick- 
all of the wild flowers could be explained to 
the children and thus teach them a reverence 
for things natural. 
On motion Mr. Davis was requested to 
obtain further information in relation to the 
subject and to report at the next meeting any 
suggestions in regard to work which might be 
undertaken in order to assist or encourage 
the movement. 
Mr. Davis also exhibted specimens and 
read the following memoranda ; 
TWO ADDITIONS TO THE LIST OF STATEN 
ISLAND PLANTS, 
Hypochaeris radicata LL. This composite 
is well established on the Island, having 
been found at three stations. In the grounds 
