NEW YORK 

 W)TANICAl 



TORREYA 



Vol. 26 No. 2 



March- April, 1926 



SHOWY WILD FLOWERS THAT DO NOT NEED TO BE 



PROTECTED 



G. E. Nichols 



A unique venture in the interest of wild flower preservation has 

 been launched by the Connecticut Botanical Society, in conjunc- 

 tion with the Garden Club of New Haven. Prizes are offered 

 for the best collections of fifty Connecticut flowers made during 

 the year 1926 to illustrate the title which appears at the head of 

 this paper. The contest is a purely local one, being open only 

 to Connecticut children sixteen years of age or under, and, for 

 the present year, only to those residing in New Haven or one of 

 the towns immediately adjoining (viz.. West Haven, Woodbridge, 

 Hamden, North Haven, and East Haven). The nature of the 

 contest is here described with the thought that other organiza- 

 tions or groups may wish to sponsor a similar one. 



Three prizes are offered, namely, a First Prize of $20, a Second 

 Prize of $10, and a Third Prize of I5; in addition to which there 

 will be five Honorable Mention awards, each consisting of a 

 year's membership in the Wild Flower Preservation Society, 

 including subscription to " Wild Flower," the official magazine 

 of that society. 



The idea of offering prizes for collections of wild flowers is by 

 no means a new one. My own first effort along botanical lines 

 was in competition for a prize of I5 offered by the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, in 1894, for the best collection of 125 native 

 wild flowers. In such contests the chief motive is to encourage 

 the study, among school children in particular, of native plants, 

 and perhaps also to secure data regarding their local distribution. 

 The present contest differs in that its manifest object is to 

 stimulate interest in the subject of wild flower protection. 

 Specifically, it is aimed at one particular phase of the situation, 

 namely, the indiscriminate picking of showy wild flowers for 

 decorative purposes. It is actuated by the realization of two 

 facts: first, that some of our native wild flowers are in danger of 



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