204 
NATURE NOTES 
of forest fires in America, and to the extermination of Sandal- 
wood and Gutta Percha trees, he dwelt more upon the effects 
of drainage, as in the Fens, and the extension of building, 
especially round London. Mention was made of the quarrying 
at Clifton, Cheddar and in the gorge of the Wye, of the destruc- 
tion of the turf edges of our roads by Rural District Councils, 
of our commons by golf, and of some plants near towns by 
smoke. The trade-collector or plant-hawker, and his treatment 
of Sea-holly, terrestrial orchids, primroses and ferns in this 
country, of Edelweiss in Switzerland, and of many beautiful 
species in the United States, was next arraigned; the damage 
sometimes done by the thoughtlessness of children, tourists, and 
even Nature-study teachers was then discussed; and the need- 
lessly wholesale collection of known rarities by the botanist was 
strongly deprecated. Turning to possible remedies, after men- 
tioning forest conservation, smoke-abatement and the desirability 
of educating our local authorities, the concealment of rare species 
by picking the blossoms and by refraining from precise localisa- 
tion in Floras was discussed, the cultivation of native plants in 
local botanical gardens, as done by M. Correvon at Geneva, was 
advocated, transplanting was defended, but re-introduction was 
on the whole deprecated. Much future good, it was urged, 
must depend on the education of the young, as by instituting 
tree-planting days, by popular lectures, leaflets and “ readers ” ; 
local societies might do much to discourage extermination and 
possibly superintend the erection of warning notice-boards ; 
whilst the lecturer undertook that the Council of the Selborne 
Society would do everything in their power to stimulate and 
combine local efforts, and would place as much space as possible 
in Nature Notes at the service of a movement to arouse a 
general sentiment in favour of plant-protection. In conclusion 
it was urged that for immediate danger recourse to the law was 
inevitable, and that the existing law of trespass was inadequate. 
The correspondence between the Devon County Council and 
the Home Secretary on the subject was narrated in full, and the 
lecturer suggested legislation on the lines of the Wild Birds 
Protection Acts. In the discussion that followed Mr. E. A. 
Martin doubted the necessity or utility of legislation, whilst 
Professor L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University, U.S.A., spoke of 
the satisfactory results of legislation in the United States, that 
legislation being backed by a strong national sentiment in favour 
of plant protection which had been organised by the Audubon 
Societies mainly through the elementary and secondary schools. 
Professor Boulger’s lecture will appear in extenso in the Jouriia 
of the Royal Horticultural Society. 
A Useful Weed. — In the recently issued Report to the 
Local Government Board by the Chief Inspector of Alkali Works, 
a prospect is held out by Dr. Alfred C. Fryer that such 
desolate spots as the heaps of alkali waste at Netham, near 
