protection on one list, otherwise fully authoritative. Such 
occasional divergencies may not seem especially important at 
first sight. The explanation of them is always simple; they 
arise from different conditions in the different localities. Their 
importance is not that they interpret different conditions in a 
different way, but it is that they give persons not actively 
sympathetic with the movement for protection an excuse to dis- 
credit the whole movement. If the prophets of the movement 
disagree as to which need protection it may be permissable for 
the layman to go on picking until some agreement is arrived at. 
If the movement is an inconsistent one, may it not be called a 
fad? 
The answer to all this is clear to those who have studied the 
question, but how make it clear to the person who takes no 
interest in studying the matter? The answer is that the wild 
flowers class in three principal groups: first, those absolutely 
in need of protection through large sections of the country — 
the Arbutus, Gentians and the Swamp Orchids; second, those 
which may be freely picked almost everywhere throughout the 
east, such as the Asters, Buttercups, etc. ; and third, those which 
are betwixt and between — those which require close protection 
near certain centers of population and in localities where certain 
soils dominate, but which may be freely picked where the soil is 
very favorable, as the Moccasin flower. This third group is the 
important feature of the entire protectionist movement — the 
group that gives it such a great interest from the point of view 
of wild flower study. 
We need, therefore, a general standardization; some manual 
that will give the large truths first, as to what may be picked 
freely and as to what must not be picked in the main sections of 
our country, east, west and south, and that will give an intro- 
duction to this debatable ground. There is a need of a 
comprehensive manual which will explain to individuals the 
basis on which local study is to be made. At present there are 
no bulletins of anything but a general nature available ; there is 
no discussion of wild flower needs based on the difference of soil 
or of altitude, which are found often so close together 
geographically. 
I want to suggest that the Wild Flower Preservation Com- 
mittee of the Garden Club of America take up the preparation 
of such a manual at the earliest possible time — securing the 
assistance of botanical experts in each section of the country and 
codifying the results into a shape that will be attractive as well 
as accurate. 
Alain C. White. 
(Note — Such a plan as Mr. White suggests is under consideration and 
we hope a manual for California will be finished by the end of the year, 
which will help in the preparation of the more general volume which Mr. 
White has in mind.) 
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