THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



75 



or more flower stores which offer cut flowers for sale. We see 

 flowers everywhere : at weddings, funerals, parties, on the 

 table, decorating the living room and the automobile. The 

 very people most insistent on flower protection are great users 

 of cut flowers. Even many of the plants bear out the idea that 

 flowers are meant to be picked, for most bear more flowers than 

 can ever ripen their seeds should they be fertilized, and the 

 violet, one of the plants listed as needing protection actually 

 bears large numbers of showy blossoms that rarely produce 

 seed if left ungathered. These latter can certainly be picked 

 without harming the plants. 



No one would think of forbidding the owner of the forest 

 to cut it down ; how can we in reason then forbid the gathering 

 of flowers on lands that are privately owned ? If the owner is 

 willing for them to be picked that is the end of the matter, and 

 if he is not, he already has plenty of laws to protect them. The 

 move toward flower protection is prompted by an admirable 

 sentiment but it is only sentiment until it is linked up with 

 practical and effective measures for accomplishing the end in 

 view. It would seem that such methods still need to be de- 

 vised. The end cannot be accomplished by pledging any num- 

 ber of people not to pick flowers. Probably the surest way to 

 preserve the rarer members of our flora from extinction is to 

 establish preserves for them in public parks and on large private 

 estates. This is already being done tO' some extent, but we need 

 a stronger sentiment in favor of "such work. Often the owner 

 of land on which rare species grow, though not interested in 

 botany and careless of vegetation in general, may be induced 

 to protect them when his attention is called to them simply be- 

 cause they are rare. The writer knows of several sanctuaries 

 of this kind which have been established thus. There are many 

 flowers, however, that because of their abundance or aggres- 

 siveness may be picked by all who will. Lists of such species 

 ought to be published and the public taught to distinguish 



