QO” 
1883, | 227 (Claypole. 
much to say that were it not for cool, moist glens and caves, where plough 
and ploughman can never come, many of these beautiful plants, the love- 
liest ornaments of the herbarium and the garden would have long since 
disappeared from the land. As it is, many of them, both here and in 
Europe, are almost extinct. They linger on, their lives hanging by a 
thread, which accident, or the hand of a ruthless collector, or of an over- 
eager botanist, may at any time snap asunder, Such are the elegant Kil- 
larney fern in Ireland, and the Trowbridge fern in England, and such may 
before long be the condition of the Hartstongue and the Climbing fern 
in this country. 
2. The competition of native races, and of introduced species under the 
new conditions, is another element in the problem. Enough, however, has 
been said above on this point. 
8. The cultivation of the ground is a most potent factor in the destruc- 
tion of many native species. Few, except annual plants, can long sur- 
vive this incessant disturbance of their roots. Of these consist, for 
the most part, our weeds. 3ut the perennial species, especially 
those which require several years to produce seed, and then produce it 
sparingly ; those that are choice of soil and conditions, cannot maintain 
themselves under cultivation, and soon fail and die. 
There are certain species, I may say certain groups, which are less 
tolerant of man and the conditions which he introduces than others. The 
gap between them and civilization seems wider than it is in other cases. 
They are the real “wild”? flowers which cannot be tamed, and usually 
die if the attempt to tame them is made. Like the wild Indian tribes of 
this continent, who are so far removed from the white man and his ways 
that their civilization seems scarcely possible, these ‘‘wild’’ denizens of 
our “wild land”’ refuse to acknowledge man’s supremacy, and die if he 
tries to assert it. 
Among these truly wild flowers are many of the Hrarm Faminy ; spe- 
cially attached to the moor and the forest. Their very name is synony- 
mous with wildness and freedom. The heather of Scotland brings up 
vividly the breezy moor and brae and fell. It isan emblem of the ‘‘land 
of brown heath and shaggy wood.’’ But the Scotch heather, like many of 
its relations, refuses to be confined within the garden fence. It is difficult 
to transplant and difficult to nurse even if successfully transplanted. It 
Seems as & mountaineer imprisoned in a dungeon, impatient of its confine- 
ment, and rather than live in such conditions, refuses to live at all. The 
Mayflower, gem of the spring in North America, manifests similar impa- 
tience of confinement, and the same is true of several other members of 
the family. ; 
In Perry county there lingers one of these survivors of our native flora 
doing battle for its existence against conditions in which no member of its 
family can long survive. It is struggling against the inroads of cultivation 
On its native haunts, and struggling against heavy odds. 
In the ‘Flora of North America,’’? Michaux described Vacoiniwm brachy- 
