short-stemmed handful of assorted varieties or a bunch of radishes 
from their own gardens. 
Here is another branch of the service — fruit and vegetables, the 
overflow from our abundant store, or the product of a garden whose 
owner is away for a few weeks. Vegetables often considered too tough 
for use, squash, beans, corn, or egg-plant, are eagerly fought for. 
The Italians have a perfect passion for the mature cucumber which 
they fry in large quantities and feed to the entire family. 
As local conditions always differ, it is impossible to outline any 
plan of organizing, but it has been found advisable to have certain 
members responsible for certain days and to pledge their own workers 
for those days. It is of course, thoroughly understood that anyone 
who has the time to come and tie flowers is more than welcome. 
Flowers are such everyday things to most of us — but just attempt to 
carry some down a crowded tenement street and see if you have the 
heart to have kept one bloom by the time you reach the second corner. 
The persistent cry "Give me a flower, lady" sends one home resolved 
to pick a bigger basketful for the next meeting of the Flower Mission. 
Mary Ellen Wingate Lloyd. 
A Plea for the Wild Flowers 
As is patent to all the world, we in America have ever been a 
prodigal people, wasting the wonderful natural resources of the most 
richly endowed country in the world, until we are brought face to 
face with the fact that we must pause, — and so conservation has 
become a fetish with us, almost a national doctrine. 
There are laws protecting the deer and other game in the moun- 
tains and the brook trout in their spawning season, but there is no 
moral or legal obligation to shield the flowering and fruiting season 
of the wild flowers — many so shy, at best, at reproducing themselves. 
Once these lovely denizens of the woods and swamps are spied 
by the chance pedestrian, their doom is sealed. With an exclamation 
or shriek of delight according to the sex of their discoverer they are 
promptly plucked, sometimes to be preserved in water for a few days, 
but usually to fade in the warm hand that took them from their chosen 
haunt. 
Few people realize that our lovely wild flowers are, in many parts 
of the country, being rapidly exterminated by alleged flower lovers. 
And who living in the vicinity of New York has failed to notice on 
Sunday and holiday afternoons in May, automobiles in a steady 
procession, going toward the city, many of which have their tonneaux 
