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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



or quarrying is cutting back a hill, it may be desirable to transplant 

 specimens to a place of safety. To such a plan there can, I think, be no 

 objection. 



The late Mrs. Ewing (whose" charming story, " Mary's Meadow," 

 originated a short-lived Parkinson Society) advocated the re-introduction 

 of lost species, or the deliberate introduction of new ones into wild 

 spots. Many botanists, such as Sherard at Eltham and Borrer at 

 Henfield, have in the past done this more or less deliberately. If done 

 secretly and not placed on record, such well-intentioned action is liable 

 to falsify our local botanical geography. It has, for example, been 

 proposed * that the seed of such species as Geranium sanguineum or 

 Veronica spicata should be saved and sown, or that seedlings should be 

 planted. Apart from any alteration effected by cultivation, which would 

 probably be insignificant and evanescent, in these very instances, which 

 were not chosen by me, there might be some risk that the Walney Island 

 Geranium prostratum, otherwise known as G. lancastriense, might be 

 substituted for G. sanguineum, or the Eastern Counties Veronica spicata 

 for the Western V. hybrida, or vice versa, which might easily mislead 

 future students. 



To secure the safety of our more attractive plants, however, it will in 

 the long run be essential to create a more enlightened public sentiment 

 regarding them. Dr. F. H. Knowlton, in an invaluable essay on the 

 subject, published in America in 1902, drew a suggestive parallel from the 

 case of wild birds. " As they are practically valueless for food, they were 

 not at first," he points out, "included under protecting laws. They were 

 common property to be destroyed at will. Under the caprice of fashion, 

 millions were destroyed annually simply for decorative purposes. Owing 

 to this ceaseless persecution, not a few species were threatened with 

 absolute extinction, and only then did the sentiment for their protection 

 begin to gain ground. At first confined to a few nature-lovers, the 

 agitation has spread until, within the past ten years, we have seen a 

 veritable wave of sentiment for bird-protection extend from end to end of 

 this country. Dozens of societies for the study and protection of birds 

 have been organised, magazines of similar scope have been established, 

 numerous books have been written, and finally legislation has been 

 enacted, making it a crime against the State or the nation to traffic in our 

 song or insectivorous birds. As a result, the birds of the seashore, plain, 

 and forest are to be spared to us. ... To devise means for the adequate 

 protection of our native plants will not be easy ; but the same might have 

 been said a few years ago about our birds, yet their protection by legisla- 

 tive enactment and an awakened public sentiment is an accomplished fact. 

 It is but reasonable to suppose that the same may in time be accomplished 

 for our vanishing plants. It seems to me that all legitimate effort that 

 can be mado for the conservation of the native flora is naturally divisible 

 into two fields — first, the broader, higher plane of enlightened public 

 sentiment regarding the protection of plants in general ; and, second, the 

 immediate steps that must be taken to save certain of the more showy 

 or interesting forms now threatened with extermination. The first is 

 something we may reasonably hope for, even if it comes slowly ; the 

 * Cotteswold Report quoted above. 



