interest in the wild life about us, both plant and animal, is the most 
successful way to educate the public to the necessity for conservation. 
What we love we will not destroy nor will we consent to have it will- 
fully destroyed by the unthinking. 
" Save the Dunes." 
"Prevent the Forest Fires." 
"Protect the birds." 
"Save the wild flowers." 
It is all one effort really and voiced, perhaps, most simply and ef- 
fectively in the slogan which is thrown on the screen of the automatic 
lantern that stands at the foot of the stairs, showing gay, bright flowers 
in quick succession all day long and interspersed with these little six 
or eight- word sermons on conservation. This slogan says — 
"I will learn to enjoy 
And not to destroy." 
As far as the exhibits go, a very fine group of life histories of but- 
terflies and moths, from egg to adult insect, is one of the features of the 
exhibit. The caterpillars are air-inflated and so lifeHke that they 
bring out shrieks and shudders of horror or of delight, depending on 
whether the spectator is a student or a mere innocent bystander. 
Another center of interest is a remarkable group of mushroom studies 
in color. Whether one's interest is in learning to classify or to cook 
them, it behooves one to be able to tell the harmless from the poison- 
ous, the luscious Sepiota from the deadly but beautiful Aminita called 
"The Angel of Death." A special chart points out their distinctions 
and resemblances in a way that must be patent to anyone that will 
study it for half a minute. 
The Wild Flower Preservation Society has been working for pro- 
tective legislature, and a bill of this sort passed the Illinois Senate last 
year and will come before the House at the next session of the legisla- 
ture. The seven IlHnois wild flowers to be protected by the bill are 
shown in most exquisite photographic studies in the gallery, particu- 
larly the Lotus, completely destroyed over large areas where it once 
flourished because it is doubly desirable, in Spring because of its flowers 
and in the Fall because of its amusing and decorative seed-pods which 
look like the spout of an old-fashioned garden watering-can. There 
are, by the way, a number of these pods among the lovely and most 
artistic room decorations. "Ought we to have these here?" whispered 
the newest member of the Society to the eldest. "Why, they come 
from our own water garden," was the reply, "and I just had to weed 
out some of them so the gold-fish could breathe." 
There is a similar use of unusual material in the long branches of 
the very rare trailing juniper, that grows only in a very few places in 
the whole United States besides our own Waukegan flats. But ground 
was broken for a new factory and these plants were dug up and sent 
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