144 
NATURE NOTES 
slips and bluebells, only to be thrown away. Among remedial 
measures suggested are appeals to school-children by the clergy 
before school-treats take place — and the replanting of rarities, 
as proposed in Mrs. Ewing’s “ Mary’s Meadow.” One writer 
expresses the opinion that legislation “ is now quite as necessary 
for wild plants as it was for wild birds a few years ago,” and 
proposes that plant-hawkers should be required to have a licence 
and to state where their wares are obtained. May we also 
suggest the use of our “ Don’t ” cards in schools, railway- 
stations, tea-gardens, &c. ? 
’Twixt the Cup and the Lip. — There is a very true adage, 
“ What’s everybody’s business is nobody’s business,” and this 
well expresses a serious danger that besets all great public 
efforts. A few enthusiasts do their utmost and accomplish so 
much that their goal seems well within reach ; whereupon the 
rest of the general public, though they may be loud in their 
protestations of sympathy, fold their hands and do nothing, 
resting satisfied with the conviction that the object will be 
accomplished, because so much has been done already. We 
are led to make these remarks more especially by the present 
position of three important schemes, to all of which we have 
before referred, those, namely, for the acquisition of Gowbarrow, 
Purley Beeches, and Light woods and Warley Woods. The 
first of these is in every respect a matter of national concern. 
Of the ;^i2,ooo required, the National Trust has secured ;^7,500; 
but the remainder has to be collected within the next five 
months. The amount collected includes comparatively few 
large donations, i.e., sums over ;^ioo, and not nearly enough 
small ones. Within a thirty-mile radius of Manchester Ex- 
change there are more than five and a half million people, with 
nearly half a million more at Leeds, and more than that number 
at Sheffield and Newcastle taken together. If only each of the 
five and a half million contributed a farthing, or if each of the 
large towns which are within excursion reach of the Lake dis- 
trict gave ;^i,ooo, the thing would be done. In the language of 
the Spectator, “ It will be a thousand pities if, after all, Gow- 
barrow cannot be made an open space for ever. To us one of 
the most attractive things about the scheme to buy Gowbarrow 
is the fact that the money subscribed cannot possibly do harm 
as well as good, as is the case with so many pulilic benefactions. 
No one can be pauperised, or deprived of self-reliance, or kept 
idle by making the public free of the noble stretch of ‘ woods, 
waters, wastes,’ sought to be purchased by the National Trust.” 
The scheme for the acquisition of Purley Beeches is a far 
smaller matter ; but it should especially appeal to lovers of 
Nature in London ; for such a piece of woodland, though it 
may fall only too easily before the advance of the suburban 
builder, cannot be replaced. Of the /"5,400 required, only 
^1,400 has to be obtained from the general public, the iiarisli 
