THE AMERICA-N BOTANIST. 
59 
One who has ever traveled by rail in summer, however, 
does not need to be told that the wayside flowers between 
stations command as much admiration from the passen- 
gjers, whether botanists or not, as any of the cultivated 
flowers so carefully tended at the points where trains 
stop. We have never seen a railwaj' station that could 
compare in beauty with the banks of rhododendrons 
along the roads through the southern Catskills at certain 
seasons, or with the great stretches of phlox, and lupine, 
and butterfl3'-weed, and puccoon, and coreopsis that 
border the railways in the territory about the Great 
Lakes. Other things being equal, who would not travel 
by the road that runs through the most flowery country ? 
Yet here, again, the section-hand mows without discrimi- 
nation and the owners of the road view the slaughter 
without a protest. 
Of course the excuse for cleaning up the roadsides is 
that it prevents weeds from going to seed and lessens the 
clanger of forest fires. It could hardly be expected, nor 
could it be desired, that all the vegetation be left un- 
touched, but it would seem as if the mowers might be 
directed to leave the showy flowers, at least. We can 
scarcely call ourselves a consistent nation so long as we 
spend as much as we do on flowers for gardens and 
grounds, while we remove all the native beauty from the 
roadsides. 
It is often a matter of remark among botanists that in 
the southern part of the United States where flowers are 
most abundant, botanists are fewest in numbers. Xo 
botanical magazines are issued in the South and there are 
comparatively few books relating to the region. The 
Florida Agriculturist hopes in time to change this some- 
what bv devoting a page weekly to botanical matters, 
and has begun reprinting the "Botany for Beginners" 
series now running in this magazine with additional notes 
likely to be of use to Southern readers. When a Northern 
