THE PRESERVATION OF NATIVE PLANTS. 
209 
THE PRESERVATION OF NATIVE PLANTS. 
BY A. W. WILLS. 
Some time ago I brought before the members of tlie 
Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society the 
subject of the reckless Vandalism which threatens many of 
our native plants with speedy extermination, and the subject 
having been referred to the Committee, Mr. W. R. Hughes, 
F.L.S., and myself were deputed to attend the recent meeting 
of the Midland Union at Peterborough in order to urge upon 
the Council- the importance of taking such steps as might 
appear practicable in order to arrest, if possible, the progress 
of this destruction. 
The pressure of business prevented my laying our views 
before the Council in detail, and I therefore avail myself of 
the columns of the “ Naturalist,” kindly placed at my 
disposal by the Editors, to place them before the members 
of the various Societies comprised in the Midland Union. 
Meanwhile I am glad to say that the Council pas ed two 
resolutions : the one expressing sympathy with the object 
which we have in view, the other directing the Management 
Committee to consult with us as to the means by which this 
object may be best compassed. 
Since I determined to bring this subject before the 
Birmingham Society my attention has been drawn by the 
Rev. C. Wolley Dod, himself well known as an ardent lover 
of Nature and as a skilful grower of hardy plants, to the fact 
that the naturalists of Switzerland, alarmed by seeing the 
like Vandalism rampant among their beautiful mountains 
and valleys, have formed a Society, the objects of which are 
indicated by its name—“ Societe pour la Protection des 
Plantes ; ” aud as the evil which they seek to combat has its 
origin in causes similar to those which prevail among our¬ 
selves, I cannot give a definite shape to our views better than 
by claiming your attention to a brief summary of certain 
points set forth in the report of the first year’s work of this 
Swiss Society. 
First, then, the ravages of the paid or professional plant- 
hunter are described in passages from which I take the 
following:—“Among all the species of Orchidaceous plants 
formerly to be found at Zofiugue there remain only three, 
and these among the commonest. A single man has 
destroyed all the rest; an individual who made a trade of 
collecting plants for the use of druggists. Some botanists 
were imprudent enough not only to employ him as a porter, 
