2 



its old home in northern Europe it was associated with the gods 

 and known as Balder's Brow. Balder, best beloved in the Norse 

 Valhalla, and a sort of Scandinavian counterpart of Apollo, the 

 sun god, was fabled to be of a presence so bright and beautiful 

 that wherever he went he shed light around him. Not unnatur- 

 ally, therefore, our little flower, with its golden yellow head and 

 aureole of white rays like conventionalized sunbeams, was to the 

 popular mind of the frigid North, emblematic of the favorite deity 

 at whose coming cold and darkness fled and summer reigned 

 in the earth. This fancy was preserved in the name that the 

 people gave the flower, and to this day, it is said, the name is 

 current in Sweden and in some rural districts of Northern Eng- 

 land, though in the latter country the word has become curiously 

 corrupted into Baldeyebrow. 



So by the mouth of a wayside weed would the ancient spirit 

 of skald and viking speak to the twentieth century American and 

 lift him a little, if may be, out of the fever and hurry of a too 

 sordid life into the immaterial realm of fancy, 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



DEVASTATION OF NATURE. 

 By G. Armington Sayre. 



A fundamental principle in the higher education of botanists 

 is embodied in the simple lines — " To love the flower and leave 

 it on its stalk." To do this requires more heroism than the ma- 

 jority of collectors possess. Whether they ever make the effort 

 to thus grow in grace depends upon the motive for collecting and 

 the amount of inborn avarice in the individual. 



Legitimate collectors of ferns and wild flowers may be 

 classed under three heads : Commercial, scientific and cultural. 

 The commercial collector sees possible dollars and cents in each 

 plant of any rare species lie may chance to find, but if he is a 

 discreet man he will realize that it will be years before the plants, 

 just starting, will again replenish his pockets. Financial consider- 



