JOURNAL 
The New York Botanical Garden 
VoL. HI. March, “1902. No. 27 
SUGGESTIONS oo THE PRESERVATION OF OUR 
ATIVE PLANTS.* 
As man began to pass from the so-called pre-human state into 
the human state, he doubtless early made a crude classification 
of the plants by which he found himself surrounded, distinguish- 
ing those that could in one way or another be made useful from 
those found from experience to be without value, which latter he 
presumably soon further subdivided into those distinctly harmful, 
er: 
occupy new territory, where he found himself surrounded by new 
plants and animals of which he acquired knowledge, and, when 
possible, adapted to his needs. It seems beyond dispute that 
for many centuries early man wandered over wide areas, driven 
hither and thither in his pursuit of means of subsistence, and so 
it came to be established that the animals and plants in nature 
belonged to him who could take and hold them. Notwithstand- 
ing the fact that certain prescribed areas came to be recognized 
as the ‘hunting grounds” of the individual, the family, the 
tribe, or the nation, countless generations passed before private 
ownership of the soil was established as we know it at the pres- 
ent day. Plants and animals were, in large measure, common 
property. But with advancing civilization private ownership be- 
came more and more firmly fixed and carried with it, as a matter 
of course, jurisdiction over the plants and animals, but as wild 
animals have ever been held as of greatest importance, laws and 
* Awarded the first prize of fifty dollars, competition of 1902, from the Caroline 
and Olivia Phelps Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants 
41 
