NATURE NOTES 
1 18 
of plants may be considered pedantic, and there will be an outcry against the 
prevention of picking flowers. Harm is not usually done by picking, unless it 
is annually incessant, rough and comprehensive. For instance, the case already 
cited by a member of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club, of village children 
picking all the handfuls they could of Bee Orchids on a Cotswold common, would 
not do much harm, although it might be better, as likely to increase the species, if 
it were less ; and it is to education that one must look for moderation in this 
direction. But the continual picking about a locality much frequented by trippers 
might soon exterminate the species there. At the same time it must not be lost 
sight of that some plants, much more than others, are persistent in again appear- 
ing in a locality where they seemingly have had too rough a treatment. 
The second reason why care must be taken in demarcating localities, is that 
the mere fact of doing so may call attention to a rare plant otherwise unnoticed. 
Last summer several plants of Cephalanthera rubra were found beautifully in 
flower close to a much frequented footpath on the Cotswolds, which might not 
have been the case had public attention been drawn to the locality. 
The further remedies will be dealt with later, as they are the same as those 
which may be applied where the future laws would be inapplicable as distinct 
from deficient. 
The law will prove inapplicable in a large variety of instances, chiefly result- 
ing from civilisation, partly from natural causes. These possible modes of 
destruction are not always obvious, but there is usually a remedy if the cause of 
destruction is noticed in good time, and a list of some noteworthy instances may 
be of value in suggesting how persons should be on the watch for damage, and 
such list is accordingly given here. The examples not referring to Gloucester- 
shire are supplied by Mr. G. C. Druce. 
(1) The planting of larches in one locality in Gloucestershire and one in Oxon 
has entirely destroyed Anemone Pulsalilla in the localities. 
(2) The sowing of coarser grass seed in the place of the fine turf of the Downs 
has destroyed the Spider Orchid in some localities. Similarly, an increase of 
rabbits has done much harm to orchids in other local localities. 
(3) Building on Boar’s Hill, near Oxford, has destroyed the site of the rare 
pink Dianthus prolifer. 
(4) Quarrying has often swept rare plants out of existence, and even now 
damage in Gloucestershire has been done at Clifton to Arabis stricta , and near 
Chepstow to Sedum rupestre. 
(5) Near Methuen in Scotland seagulls suddenly took to nesting, and 
destroyed the habitat for Scheuchzeria palustris. 
(6) The great gale in 1895 swept down laige numbers of pines at Loch Tay. 
Close by was the only habitat for Calaviagrostis borealis. Saw-mills were later 
erected to cut up the pines, and Mr. Druce visited the locality to see if there was 
any danger, but as the saw mills were 100 yards away he thought the plant safe. 
Later, he again went, but the sawdust from the mills had been cast on the marsh 
and utterly destroyed the plant. 
(7) The trimming of the roadside turf along Walling Street by a County 
Council destroyed Eryngium campeslre, which is very rare in England, and only 
grew in Northamptonshire in that one locality. 
Now in such cases the law' is inapplicable, and the only remedies practically 
are to enclose such spots, or to remove the plants to a safe distance, if possible 
in the same locality (and certainly in the same geological or natural formation), 
or to keep up a stock by sowing seeds or planting seedlings. As the Cotteswold 
Naturalists’ Field Club has for one of its objects the protection of rare plants, 
members should everywhere be alert to the possibility of destruction in any of 
the ways indicated, or in other ways. With the aid, then, of an associaiion leave 
might be obtained to enclose spots (e.g., a habitat for the Lizard Orchid is now 
enclosed by barbed wire), to obtain very interesting habitats and vest them in 
trustees (a small bog has been thus obtained in Oxon), to keep small wild pieces 
of a locality out of the influences of cultivation (e.g., on the Black Hill of Cromarty 
there was a large marsh, the only locality for Pinguicida alpina. All this was 
brought under cultivation and drainage except one small piece, which was 
enclosed with a wall and is still a marsh, and a sanctum for this rare Butterwort). 
The Committee, therefore, have passed the following resolutions, and submit 
the same to the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club to be confirmed by its members. 
