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places, or perched upon the branches of trees. Some plants 
have acquired disagreeable odors, bitter tastes, poisonous prop- 
erties, or stinging glands which prevent persons and animals 
alike from molesting them. Others have so protected themselves 
against man and other destructive forces, that the picking or loss 
of their flowers do no harm. Some have hardened their stems, 
so that it is difficult to break them. These are naturally pro- 
tected and need no special consideration at the present time; 
but many have not been able to protect themselves against man 
as an additional destructive factor in their struggle to exist. 
These are the particular kind that should receive the friendly 
attention and assistance of man himself. 
The wild flower has its own personality. It has struggled 
hard for its existence, and now exists as an individual and pro- 
duces its own kind. The more we pick of these struggling indi- 
viduals, the fewer they become, and the propagation of their 
kind is unable to withstand and keep pace with their gradual 
decrease in numbers. When taken on a small scale, one hardly 
observes the loss which has occurred, but taken in the aggregate, 
the loss amounts to an incalculable quantity. 
Nature has fitted certain flowers for their definite places in 
the world. The mountain laurel crowns the mountain with its 
wreath of beauty. The mountaineer loves the mountain for its 
natural splendor. To him belongs a rightful share in all the 
beauty by which nature has surrounded his home. The people 
of the foothills and lowlands love their homes and their sur- 
roundings no less dearly than does the mountaineer his wilder 
range. The flowers of the fields and open woods furnish the 
pictures of their childhood which live with them as types of 
beauty unsurpassed. This beauty is their inheritance. So has 
man on all sides been surrounded by a magnificent wealth of natu- 
ral beauty in which the flowers, shrubs, herbs, birds and trees 
play an important part. The gathering of mountain laurel for 
Christmas and other decorations in winter, and for its beautiful 
flowers in spring, robs the inhabitants of the mountain of plants 
which should furnish cover for his game, and beauty that should 
cheer his heart and compensate for the harder and more rugged 
