THE PRESERVATION OF OUR FLORA 187 
until such a plant as the Edelweiss may be in imminent danger 
of extermination. 
Similarly thoughtless selfishness on the part of the botanist, 
coupled with greater knowledge of what is rare, has led to 
culpably wholesale collecting, though not often — I think — in 
England. Mr. E. M. Holmes has mentioned how, when once 
walking over Ballard Down, near Swanage, he saw six plants 
of Orchis ustulata, and on his return six holes in the turf. Orchis 
Hstidata does not, I believe, now occur in that district. When 
collecting in foreign countries botanists seem often to have been 
actuated by the mere trade instincts of the professional dealer. 
In their case, however, more harm is, I think, often done by 
mere want of thought, as in the publication of detailed descrip- 
tions of the whereabouts of some rarity, thus guiding unscrupu- 
lous persons to the spot. Whilst, moreover, to one already 
familiar with all the commoner species a rare plant is an im- 
portant fresh object of study, he may forget that to the beginner 
the more abundant forms are every whit as instructive. 
Such being briefly an outline of my view of the dangers in 
which our more beautiful and interesting plants are placed, I 
turn to the various possible remedies. 1 propose dealing with 
these under the heads of concealment, the cultivation of wild 
forms, reintroductions, suasion and legal protection, whether 
by existing laws or by fresh legislation. 
I am strongly of opinion that it is inadvisable to publish in 
local Floras localities for rarities more precisely indicated than 
by the name of the parish or district in quite general terms. 
This, with oral tradition of a select — very select — few will 
amply suffice to prevent any locality being lost. My friend. 
Father H. P. Reader, an excellent Dominican botanist, who 
rediscovered that rare orchid, Cephalanthera rubra, at Wood- 
chester, in Gloucestershire, adopted a wise precaution in show- 
ing the locality to the late Sir William Guise, president of the 
Cotteswold Field Club, a grower of rare plants. He led him 
by many circuitous paths through the woods and took him back 
by another route so that the old gentleman, though he saw the 
plant growing, was not likely to find it again. Another plant- 
lover in the same district, named Atkins, whose name is well- 
known to Cyclamen-growers, adopted another expedient. A 
neighbour-collector, named Wintle, remarked to him that some 
of the less common plants of the neighbourhood — bee-orchids, 
I think — seemed to be suffering from the wholesale attacks of 
some new enemy, whether bird or slug he did not know, all their 
flowering shoots being nipped off. “ Oh,” said Atkins, “ I did 
that to prevent you finding them.” A brother-in-law of mine 
adopted the same practice on the North Downs ; but, however 
advisable it may be in the case of bulbous or rhizomatous plants, 
which, in the good soil and favourable conditions of their native 
haunts reproduce themselves freely by “ cloves,” or other 
vegetative methods, and are therefore independent of flower 
