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These flower exhibitions are becoming more and more popular, 
manifesting an increased interest in horticulture. It is hoped 
that at future exhibitions the amateur gardener will take a more 
active interest. It is planned to arrange the next schedule of 
premiums so that the amateur may feel tempted to enter more 
into the competition. 
GEORGE V. Nasu. 
THE PRESERVATION OF OUR WILD FLOWERS.* 
On a beautiful spring morning we wander into the woods, to 
forget for a while, if possible, the trials and battles of life, and to 
receive new faith and new hope from nature’s heart. Suddenly 
the serene silence of the early morning is broken by a child's 
silvery voice, without much volume, but with a sweetness that 
the greatest opera singer can never equal. Hastening toward 
the spot, whence the sound arose, we catch parts of a simple 
little song. Passing under an arch, formed by two young sap- 
lings, we stop instantly, for before us is a picture, whose equal the 
greatest artist can never produce upon his canvas. A baby girl 
bending to the ground, plucks with her tiny hands a lady slipper, 
and raising it to her ruddy lips, she kisses it. The sunbeams, 
penetrating through the leafy bower, play and dance upon her 
golden hair; the robins are not afraid to approach and sing to her. 
The purple-winged butterflies alight on her chubby arms, and 
the bumble-bee, even when she plucks the pink lady slipper upon 
which it has just alighted, does not desire to harm her with its 
deadly sting. Can we think of anything more beautiful, more 
sacred than this little child wandering far away from civilization, 
in a world entirely her own, raising a wild flower to her lips and 
kissing it? The wild flower, growing alone in the wilderness, 
exposed to the violence and extremes of the elements, with no 
caretaker but God himself, is a message direct from heaven to 
those who love wild flow 
I think the wild ee ek to be preserved, ay person 
*Awarded a third prize, competition of 1909, from the Caroline and Olivia 
Phelps Stokes fund for the Preszrvation of Native Plants. 
