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a year ago. On one of our trolley cars riding in from the country 

 were three women, loaded down with branches broken off our 

 native flowering dog^vood, Cornus florida. Attention was called 

 to this ruthless destruction of one of our most ornamental native 

 trees, but reference to their acts of vandalism was met with the 

 request to mind one's own business. Automobile parties fre- 

 quently are very destructive of the dogwood. 



Just where the education of the public should begin it is hard 

 to say. Children thoughtlessly believe any ground not strictly 

 enclosed is open to the public and carry off flowers and break 

 branches, etc. In Philadelphia, a neighbor was much annoyed 

 by the depredations of small girls and bo^-s. He had planted 

 snowdrops in his grass plot, and whenever flowers appeared early 

 in the spring, he found that many school children picked them to 

 carry to their teachers. A shrub of Xanthoceras sorhi folia has 

 had several branches broken off by children in search of the large 

 green fruits, which appear in clusters on its upper branches. 

 Another neighbor planted a row of peonies along the low side of 

 her city yard. She was incensed by the theft of fine blooms from 

 each one of her plants along the fence which was open to the 

 depredations of the passerby. This illustrates that to start at 

 the root of this evil, we must begin with the little children, even 

 before they are five years old, for a little fellow five years old was 

 found engaged in such thoughtless trespassing. 



The Wild Flower Preservation Society has done wisely to begin 

 its propaganda with the school children. The illustrated litera- 

 ture which has been issued from time to time, the framed colored 

 pictures of flowers worthy of preservation and the lectures which 

 have been given by the various members of the society, have 

 done much good. Much remains to be accomplished to educate 

 the rising generation to appreciate the natural and beautiful and 

 to realize that other people have rights which ought to be re- 

 spected. Also that plants on private grounds, even if accessible, 

 are not public property. The proper inculcation of these prin- 

 ciples will do much toward the preservation of wild flowers. In 

 conclusion, one suggestion comes to me, as a method of reaching 

 the public at large, and that is the preparation of lantern 



