NATURE NOTES 
1 16 
First. What the laws of the country do towards assisting in the preservation 
of plants. 
Secondly. What plants are in danger in the county. 
Thirdly. What methods of preservation are available where such laws are 
deficient or inapplicable. 
(i) As it stands at present the law is wholly inadequate to deal with the pro- 
tection of any wild plants, rare or otherwise. Briefly, the case may be stated as 
follows : A man may absolutely exterminate a rare plant only known perhaps to 
grow in one place in England, or a man may denude hedges of any number of 
ordinary plants and ferns that make them beautiful, and have perhaps a money 
value of many pounds, yet, unless he can be proved to have done damage to the 
land — to the real property — even if such damage only amounts to 6d. in actual 
value, he cannot be prosecuted. The damage referred to consists, for instance, 
of damage to fences or damage by leaving large holes in the soil. A pilferer, if 
a man of substance (which he seldom is), might be sued in a civil action for 
damages, or in any case might be removed from the land if caught in lime, but 
he cannot be prosecuted. The result is that there must be a large number of 
offenders in order that out of them a small proportion can be found who have 
damaged the land, because in most cases the removal of plants does not neces- 
sarily result in such damage. As regards the possibility of bye-laws to be made 
by a County Council, a notification from the Home Secretary is sufficiently 
explanatory of the difficulties of the case as the general law stands at present. 
“ Whitehall , May 23, 1902. 
“ Sir, — I have laid before the Secretary of State your letter of the 1st instant, 
stating that the Devon County Council desire to make a bye-law dealing with the 
up-rooting of ferns, plants, &c. , in public places, and I am directed by him to say 
for the information of the Council, that he does not quite understand from your 
letter the precise description of the acts which it is proposed to prohibit, and he 
would be glad to see the bye-law in draft. 
“ If it is confined to cases where serious damage and disfigurement is caused 
in public highways, &c. , there may not be much difficulty from the legal point of 
view in fiaming the bye-law, but the Secretary of State would not be willing to 
allow a bye-law which would be likely to injure unsuspecting poor people residing 
in the district, or to lead to the punishment of young children. Possibly, how- 
ever, the bye-law could be restricted in its operations so as not to involve any 
danger of this, eg. , by confining it to particular places to be indicated by notices. 
“ If, however, it is proposed that the bye-law should only apply to rare ferns 
or plants, the difficulties in framing it are likely to be greater. 
“ In any event, a bye-law which would prevent any person from taking one or 
two common ferns or plants from the roadside for his own use, would, in the 
opinion of the Secretary of State, be inadmissible. 
“I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
“(Signed) Henry Cunynghame. 
“ The Clerk to the Devon County Council , 
“ The Castle , Exeter .” 
^ 2) As regards plants in danger of destruction or a severe diminution of num- 
bers, they are best classified by the modes of destruction, and in all these cases it 
is at present only rooting-up or removal of plants that is considered and not the 
picking of flowers, &c. 
( a ) Plants rooted up wholesale by professional plant-stealers for selling 
purposes. 
(/$) Plants liable to be rooted up by trippers and villagers. 
(c) Plants liable to be rooted up by botanists and collectors. 
(a) Plants that appeal to plant-stealers must be obtainable wholesale and be 
showy and easily transplanted, and it may be stated here at the outset that they' 
are practically only plants of this nature that the Devon Association has been 
able to reach. In Devon plants thus reached consist almost entirely of ferns and 
partly of primroses. In other words, so far the Association has only laid its hands 
on professional plant-stealers, and to these men practically only ferns and prim- 
roses appeal. There is a very great difference, however, between the quantity of 
these kinds of plants in Devon and Gloucestershire. In Devon the lanes and 
