88 



It would be interesting to learn how many boxes of arbutus 

 are annually mailed in the United States and how near extermina- 

 tion it is at the several stations where it was formerly abundant. 

 We know that at Lakewood there is little of it left, and we hope 

 that George Gould will protect it within the limits of his estate. 

 It is the only way that certain rare plants and birds have been 

 preserved in England, and we are rapidly finding such restrictions 

 necessary. At Natural Bridge all persons are forbidden picking 

 wild flowers. Various places have their fashionable favorites ; in 

 the Berkshires it is the fringed gentian, in Boston the Sabbatia, 

 at several places in Pennsylvania it is the Rhododendron, Kalmia 

 and Azalea, and New York may well claim first place as destroyer 

 of the Holly and Prinos berry. We may well ask, also, where 

 will the Christmas trees and greens come from in the future, if 

 they do not cultivate the balsams and spruces, and cease the reck- 

 less destruction of ground-pine and laurel. We are sending now 

 to the southern states for most of the holly and mistletoe and to- 

 the states northeast of us for Christmas trees. 



Before it became the fashion to use "Galaxy" for funeral 

 wreaths, Galax was very abundant in the southern Alleghanies, 

 but now that the leaves are picked by the crate-full, it is becom- 

 ing more expensive. It is to be hoped that they do not "kill the 

 goose that lays the golden egg." 



The custom of filling jardinieres with ferns has destroyed many 

 pretty nooks in Bronx Park and is the cause of endless trouble, 

 as the propensity to take them and ignore the signs, seems to be 

 a prevalent feminine failing. None of our native ferns are par- 

 ticularly suited to this purpose, however, and invariably need fre- 

 quent renewing, so that it would be easy to exterminate any one 

 species very soon, if the depredations were permitted and con- 

 tinued. In the heat of summer nothing is more beautiful and 

 restful than a fern bank ; but the sight will not be allowed to New- 

 Yorkers if energetic folk who "must have green things about" 

 have their way. Much care has been taken to transplant into 

 suitably prepared nooks and crevices of the Fern corner, the rarer 

 species and varieties of North American ferns and to surround 

 them with beds of mosses and rocks and shade. The Walking- 

 fern has been exceedingly difficult to establish. There are sev- 

 eral stations for this fern within a radius of fifty miles from New 



