ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 11 



(Smilax) which Professor Sargent thinks may be new. Another specie- 

 was added to the state sylva from a different locality, namely, the pumpkin 

 ash (Fraxinus profunda), which, although long known to me as growing 

 in Southern Illinois had not previously been actually collected and its 

 occurrence properly verified. The writer has also added, from time to time, 

 to the sylva of Richland County the Washington thorn (Crataegus 

 cordata), Southern hawthorn (C. viridis), deciduous holly (Ilex decidua), 

 woolly-leaved hickory (Hicoria villosa), Chickasaw Plum, (Prunus 

 angustifolia) , and Biltmore ash (Fraxinus hilmoreana) , while the additions 

 among herbaceous plants, including grasses and sedges, have been numerous. 

 When it is considered that all these additions to the flora are the result of 

 a very few collecting trips and nothing even approaching systematic or 

 continued work in that line, it may be seen that the field is really a very 

 promising one for the experienced botanical collector. 



Of vastly greater importance, to the general public at least, than the 

 scientific value of the proposed establishment of forest and game preserves 

 and like measures for the improvement of Southern Illinois, is the direct 

 benefit which would result in improving the appearance of the country. At- 

 tractiveness from the aesthetic point of view is an asset which has been far 

 too much underestimated or ignored. Hitherto only so-called "practical" 

 matters have been considered, and with a short-sightedness that is little less 

 than amazing, the work of vandalism in the way of tree-destruction has 

 been wholly unrestrained, and many localities thereby rendered repellent 

 in their ugliness. No reasonable person can, or will, object to the cutting 

 down of a tree when there is good cause for doing so, nor to clearing of 

 woodlands when necessary ; but altogether too much freedom has been 

 allowed to those who ruthlessly destroy trees which shade the roadside and 

 beautify the landscape, with no other excuse than that such trees stunt the 

 growth of a row or two of corn for a space of a few rods, or that they 

 prevent the road from drying out. The first excuse has some basis, because 

 the feeding roots of the tree do draw the moisture from the soil (and per- 

 haps more or less of the fertility also), but the second has none whatever, 

 for if the tree dries up the ground on the one side of it, it must, of course, do 

 the same on the other. The essential matter of proper drainage of the road 

 is in such cases entirely overlooked. 



There are, of course, many people whose minds are so constituted that 

 they cannot see anything to admire in Nature, and who have a certain 

 contempt for those who can. But these should remember that there are 

 many people who do admire and appreciate God's handiwork, and that they 

 as well as themselves have rights in the matter of road-sides, which belong 

 to one class as much as the other ; and of this fact the laws, thus far favor- 

 ing only the former class, should take cognizance. There is very much in 

 this life besides the "practical," which too often means the exploitation 

 rather than the true development of the country. The waste of natural 

 resources, with utter disregard for the future, is natural and defensible 

 under pioneer conditions ; but these have long ago ceased to exist, and it is 

 now time to install a new era in the development of our State. No civiliza- 

 tion is complete or real unless it combines the aesthetic with the practical. 

 Jesus said: "Man cannot live by bread alone." which, rightly interpreted, 

 means that he must have food for the mind and soul, as well as for the body. 



Robert Ridgway. 



