i88 
NATURE NOTES 
and seed production, this is, I think, likely to be disastrous in 
the case of orchids, since our terrestrial members of that group 
only produce one fresh tubercle yearly to replace the one ex- 
hausted by flowering and fruiting, and there is some danger 
that, failing any seeding, a mischance to the one root, such as 
being eaten by field mice, parched by drought or rotted by 
stagnant water, might prove fatal to the species in tha.t locality. 
Much good may, I think, be done by the cultivation of rare 
native plants in botanical gardens, so that hawkers, collectors, 
or tourists seeking souvenirs may, for a small sum, have cut 
or growing specimens without endangering the continuance of 
the rarity in its native habitat. This has been most success- 
fully done by M. Henri Correvon at Geneva, especially in the 
case of Edelweiss, and by his friendly imitators at various 
gardens in Italy and the Tyrol. Mr. Cochrane of Catford 
Bridge, has started a garden there on the same principle as 
M. Correvon’s, and as he only asks for loo annual subscribers 
of 5s. each I hope he will receive every encouragement. At 
the same time I have little doubt that Messrs. Backhouse of 
York, to whom teachers of botany are so much indebted for 
their recently established scientific supply department, would 
undertake similar work for the north of England. It might, 
I think, be desirable to establish similar small gardens in 
Scotland, especially for such rarities as those of Ben Lawers, in 
the extreme west of England for the many treasures of Cornwall, 
and in the Channel Islands for those peculiar to that group. 
The private amateur gardener, on the other hand, especially 
when without any special facilities, had better entirely deny 
himself the very small satisfaction of attempting to grow rare 
British plants of wild origin. If he requires these species at all 
let him get cultivated specimens through Mr. Cochrane, Messrs. 
Backhouse, or some such course. 
The late Mrs. Ewing, whose charming story, “ Mary’s 
Meadow” originated a short-lived Parkinson Society, advocated 
the deliberate introduction of new, or reintroduction of lost old, 
species in wild spots ; and many botanists have in the past 
done this more or less deliberately. Sherard at Eltham, and 
Borror at Henfield, were both the originators of such falsifica- 
tion of our local botanical geography. If such introductions are 
done secretly and not placed on record, they are, I consider, 
deplorable, since they may vitiate many important conclusions 
as to distribution : and even if carried out with great care and 
duly recorded they are open to objection, since it may very well 
happen that the form reintroduced may not be exactly the same 
as that previously in existence. 
Much may undoubtedly be done, and is being done, by mere 
example, teaching and moral suasion. Teachers should incul- 
cate a respect for even the commonest beauties of our fields and 
hedges, teaching children not to pick even buttercups and daisies, 
merely to throw them away again almost immediately in an 
