THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



141 



The leaves are green or bronze, and the smaUer ones are 

 from two and one-half to three inches across, while the medium 

 are three to four inches and the large ones are more than four 

 inches. 



The sorting and tying is done on stormy days and at night. 

 All fair weather is spent pulling the leaves. It requires nearly 

 as long to sort and tie up one thousand leaves as it does to 

 gather them. 



For the leaves delivered at the store the pickers receive in 

 trade 25 cents per thousand. The cash price is two cents per 

 thousand less. 



As the leaves are brought to the storekeeper they are 

 packed in standard wooden cases of ten thousand leaves each. 

 Each case contains but one size and color of leaves. To pro- 

 tect the leaves against drying out in transit the cases are lined 

 with oiled paper and in the top and bottom of each is placed 

 dampened moss. 



The galax industry has a very beneficial effect along the 

 line of preventing forest fires in the localities where the leaves 

 are gathered. \Miere fire runs through a bed no leaves can 

 be gathered for several years. Thus, the people who pull the 

 galax are very careful with fire and are always ready to aid in 

 the extinguishing of fire that threatens their collecting grounds. 

 It has been some twelve years since there has been a serious 

 forest fire in the South Toe River \'alley in Yancey county, 

 Xorth Carolina, due very largely to the fact that many hundred 

 cases of galax are gathered there each year. 



