NATURE NOTES 
56 
Preservation of Swiss Scenery. — Steady progress has 
been made in the movement to secure the preservation of Swiss 
scenery since the Sion College meeting, which resulted in the 
establishment of an English branch of the Society working with 
that object. The number of members enrolled in this country 
is nearly 200, and they include man)' of the most distinguished 
members of the Alpine Club. The National Trust has passed 
a resolution of sympathy with the movement, and all the mem- 
bers of the City Swiss Club have joined it, as have also two 
well-known writers on the Alps, the Rev. H. B. George (of 
Oxford) and Dr. Claude Wilson, and the Headmasters of 
Berkhampstead, Birmingham, Clifton, and Dover Schools. The 
Ligue pour la Conservation de la Suisse Pittoresque will shortly publish 
the first number of its review, the object of which is to save as far 
as possible the natural beauties of Switzerland from the harmful 
influences of commercial enterprise. 
A County Council Error. — The London County Council 
has done, and is doing, so much excellent work in various 
directions towards fostering the loving study of Nature that 
when they take an undoubtedly false step we know that they 
are sinning from thoughtlessness, and not from malice prepense. 
Nature-study and practical teaching of elementary botany in 
primary schools are excellent in themselves, and the setting 
aside of parts of the public parks as miniature botanical gardens 
is also an excellent means to these ends. Such gardens need 
not be limited to a small public display; but may well include 
provision for the cultivation of specimens for the schools, as 
the Royal Botanical Society long did for London medical schools 
in their Regent’s Park gardens. The London County Council 
have plenty of available space and plenty of gardeners ; and 
however pleasant a cycle ride at the ratepayers’ expense may 
be, the business of a gardener is, after all, to grow plants and not 
to uproot wild ones. We were simply horrified at reading the 
following paragraph in the Daily Express of January 22. 
Bicycles for Botanists. 
The Education Committee, in their report to the London County Council, 
recommend that the Council’s gardeners be each supplied with cycles, and that 
they receive an allowance of one penny for every mile they ride the machines. 
The reason for this recommendation is thus explained : “ We are informed 
that large numbers of botanical specimens are collected by the wayside, that the 
sources of supply are in most instances remote from the railway, and that by 
using cycles wherever possible the collection of specimens is facilitated.” 
Botanical specimens are being supplied to 575 departments of the County 
Council schools. On an average 700 boxes, containing 500,000 specimens, are 
despatched monthly. 
Such journeys are not likely to extend very far from the 
metropolis, nor will the cyclists stray far from the roads, so 
that the half million specimens monthly mean the rapid destruc- 
tion of most of the roadside beauty of a district where other 
causes are already at work towards uglification. We hope to 
