22 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



the fringed gentian. I grant that in the environs of city 

 and town, the native flora is fast disappearing but this, 

 again, is inevitable. The only feasible ^^ay in which rem- 

 nants of it may be preserved is by establishing small parks 

 where all flower-gathering is forbidden. 



To my mind, the attempt to foster a sentiment against 

 the picking of any and all wild-flowers is not to be com- 

 mended. Who that has still a remembrance of the pleasure 

 derived from gathering flowers in childhood, would with- 

 hold the same pleasures from others ? But there is a more 

 practical reason for this stand. So long as the owners of 

 woods and fields permit indiscriminate flower gathering, 

 to refrain from picking the flowers you desire, is simply to 

 leave them for others less considerate. This sounds like a 

 selfish doctrine, but it is founded upon facts. Moreover, a 

 vast number of attractive flowers, such as buttercups, 

 toad'flax, violets, daisies, goldenrod and asters not only 

 thrive without protection but often in spite of very de- 

 cided attempts at their extermination. To teach children 

 that flowers must not be picked is to give them wrong 

 ideas of nature. All the rest of the world lives upon the 

 plants. Every plant lover, however, is a plant protector 

 and children possessing a proper knowledge of plant life 

 know well enough what to pick and what to leave. Teach 

 them the proper kind of botany and your choice wildings 

 will not suffer at their hands. This, in the end amounts 

 to fostering a sentiment against picking, but it is a feeling- 

 founded upon knowledge, not a false notion of the "sanc- 

 tity" of plant life. 



Sentiment is frequently wasted over the cutting of 

 Christmas trees and the gathering of flowers for the mar- 

 kets. The land from which the trees come is usually too 

 poor to grow anything else. If a man cannot raise wheat 

 or corn, why deny him the right to his crop of Christmas 

 trees ? The flowers gathered for market, are gathered b3^ 

 permission, for the trespass laws are strong enough to pre- 

 vent such gathering if the owner of the land cares to do so. 



A resort to more laws for the protection of plants will 



