THE PROTECTIOX AND PRESERVATION OF .CALIFORNIA'S FLORA 



BY W. L. JEPSOX 



It is not so long ago that the soft curves of the hills from their summits to 

 the bay shore were yellow in March with the abounding bloom of the California 

 Buttercup, while on the flats and plains Baby Blue-eyes, Allocaryas, Eschscholtzias, 

 Owl's Clover and Cream Sacs contended to monopolize the traveler's attention. 

 These broad sweeps of color have given way in great part under the pressure of 

 civilization. Man takes the land for his uses, — streets for his cities, pasture for 

 his herds, fresh sweet earth for the moldboard of his plow. The land that was 

 once a wild garden of fine and singular beauty is now a land of homes and smiling 

 cultivated fields. We would not have it otherwise. And yet there are still left here 

 and there, relics of the former native flowering, that have an historical value, that 

 tell us what once was, and that are worth while to save. A people who have no 

 wild flowers lose one of nature's great resources; a people who are not in deli- 

 cate and sympathetic touch with the wild creatures have through that medium 

 lost touch with the universe. We must save representative formations of our 

 wild life because it is one of the strong assets of a finer civilization. We gather 

 strength from the hills,— but not if they are absolutely naked and desolate. Asso- 

 ciation with the native plants in the canyons and fields is enlivening, heartening and 

 restful, — it stimulates the better parts of our nature, enlarges the understanding, 

 deepens the sympathies, and widens the vision. For such joyful experience tourists 

 travel from the ends of the earth to see the flower fields of the Engadine in the 

 Swiss Alps. So will they to see the burning poppies and purple Shooting Stars 

 of California if we safeguard our wild life and make it a quest. 



Through high good fortune we have two great and most wonderful flower 

 preserves in the Sierra Nevada, — the Sequoia and Yosemite parks. We should 

 have many such in the Coast Ranges, though for the purpose they need not 

 be so extensive. Even a few acres judiciously located may serve as a public 

 or private refuge for the native creatures. 



Diffusion of popular knowledge concerning the native flowers is a great and 

 worth-while object, because he who does not know them is missing enjoyment 

 which cannot otherwise be replaced. Then, too, when everyone knows the native 

 flowers, public opinion will be strong enough to protect them. Protection can- 

 not be had by legislation, nor by penalties. If we are sane in our use there are 

 wildflowers for all, — to have and to hold. Purple of Larkspur and yellow of 

 Mariposa, cream of Meadow Foam, kisses of Red Maids, and spurs of Yellow 

 Pansy. But indiscriminate slaughter, the picking in hosts beyond any possible 

 power to enjoy, — this is a kind of destructiveness which even the savage does not 

 practice. 



Down through the centuries by the way our race has come it has been guided 

 by rallying cries, — brief calls from mouth to mouth, telling a world of feeling 

 against usurper, vicious custom, or local abuse. So must we now invent calls as 

 one of the ways to help in wild flower preservation. 



In the long run protection must come by the devices and resources of united 

 effort, high intelligence, and careful handling. W r e must work for it, plan for it, 

 strive for it. It is a noble object. If the beauty and glamour of the Golden 

 Land in its youth can be preserved and harmonized with the practical phases of 

 our civilization, then we may proudly say that our race was fit to possess and use 

 this land, fit to enjoy it and to keep it, rising to the spirit and glad wonder of 

 Nature in the valleys, mountains and canyons of our California. 



