4.00 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Pi oa : 
Wild Honeysuckle or Pink Azalea 
Mountain 
red lily of July, for instance, growing at the roadside, is 
pulled by the hundreds by ruthless hands for the purpose of 
beautifying the church. Often the tiny bulb is dragged out 
of its sheltering crevice, and so is lost to all the summers to 
come. Picked thus, in great tight bunches, and crowded into 
vases for altars or communion tables, it can hardly glorify 
God nor be enjoyed by man.” 
There are even now a few old-fashioned gardens still in 
New England and all of them show many wild flowers. In 
one of these noted gardens near Newburyport the wild asters 
stand tall in large bunches along the outer edge of wide 
borders, beautiful, from cultivation, in coloring and develop- 
ment of flower. 
Let the children know the country not for one but for 
many summers. It will always be a pleasure to recall the 
stony pasture where the columbine nodded its pretty head. 
The brook, where the cardinal flower showed bright and 
stately on its brink. The corner by the old stone wall, where 
the gentian grew. The meadow, white with blossoms of the 
wild strawberry. 
Teach the children to love flowers evenasthe Japanese love 
them. It is said that no nation excels the Japanese in the ar- 
rangement of flowers, and the reticence they display in their 
use especially commends itself to every one. 
June, 
1906 
Laurel Closed Gentian 
At Yokohama there is a school for floral arrangement 
at the head of which is a woman whose ancestors for three 
hundred years have devoted each one a lifetime to the plac- 
ing of flowers in the most artistic ways. ‘This art enters into 
their social entertainment—flowers being given to any noted 
guest for arrangement. 
Teachers in their Nature study work can be most helpful 
to any community by showing the children how to love flow- 
ers in the right way. Not so very long ago the pupils of one 
of the primary grades in Chicago were taken thirty miles to 
see the flowers on the lowlands of the Des Plaines River. 
The teacher and children before starting on the trip agreed 
to bring back memory pictures and but few flowers. Before 
their return journey each little one gathered a blossom and 
seemed perfectly content to take no more. The day had been 
one of beautiful enjoyment. The moral tone had been up- 
lifted by coming close to Nature, directed by great delicacy 
and good taste. 
Such an experiment repeated all over our country would 
help to do away with the destruction of our native plants to 
a very large extent. At all events it is clear that active steps 
must be taken for the preservation of our native plants. 
Much time has been lost and much harm done by earlier 
indifference. 
