MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
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any such interest as would attract a professional artist, yet by tlieir 
personal associations, or from temporary causes, have become interest¬ 
ing to himself. 
Preservation of Native Plants. 
The lamentable results of the unchecked eagerness for collecting 
rare or specially beautiful plants have already been brought to the 
notice of the members of the Union by the paper on the subject by 
Mr. A. W. Wills, in the “Midland Naturalist” for August, 1884. The 
subject has been under the consideration of the Management Com¬ 
mittee at each of its meetings, and as the result the Council recom¬ 
mend that the following appeal be adopted by the Annual Meeting, 
and that Messrs. A. W. Wills, E. W. Badger, and Prof. W. Hillhouse 
be requested to take the necessary steps to bring it under the notice 
of the Natural History Societies of the country and of the public 
generally. 
Appeal. 
it is a fact only too evident to the most superficial observer that 
many of our rarest and most beautiful native plants have already 
been or are being rapidly exterminated ; and it may be assumed that 
this extermination will be viewed with regret — even with indignation 
—alike by the student and by the ordinary lover of natural beauty, 
and that both will be willing to assist, by all available means, in any 
measures which may afford the prospect of arresting its course. 
The Council of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies 
asks serious attention to the following brief statement of the causes 
of the rapid destruction of British plants, and of what it ventures 
to suggest as the best means of mitigating the evil. 
These causes appear to be mainly as follows : — 
First.—The ravages of professional plant-hunters, who offer to the 
tourist or to the general public, by advertisement, plants attractive by 
reason of their beauty or of their comparative or absolute rarity. 
The large dimensions which this traffic has assumed are indicated 
by the number of such advertisements which appear in some of the 
gardening periodicals, offering ferns from Devonshire, Cornwall, 
Somerset, the Wye Valley, &c., at from 4s. to 7s. 6d. per 100, in 
named varieties; Hymenophyllum tunbridyense and II. unilaterale at 2s. 
per square foot; various species of Orchis, Saxifrage, &c., at from 2s. 
to 5s. per 100; Bog Asphodel at 2s. per doz. ; or inviting tenders for 
Primroses and Daffodils at so much per 100,000. 
Second.—The operations of Exchange Clubs, the members of which 
are often asked to supply large numbers of the rare plants of their own 
districts in exchange for corresponding quantities of those of other 
neighbourhoods. 
Third.—The indiscriminate or careless gathering of plants, often 
taken with their roots or in seed, by Botanists and their students 
in the course of botanical excursions. 
Fourth.—The reckless gathering of large numbers of specimens by 
individual botanists. 
Recognising that restrictive legislation or police interference are 
neither applicable nor desirable, the Council believes that it is by the 
indirect influence of example and the promotion of healthy public 
opinion that the evil in question can alone be combated. 
They therefore earnestly urge the following considerations upon 
botanists, members of Field Clubs, Natural History and other Scientific 
Societies, upon all lovers of Nature and upon the public generally :— 
