i8o 
nature: study. 
day the work that it has taken kindly nature years, decades, 
centuries, even milleniums to finish. John Muir tells us of 
gigantic trees, in our western forests, which were already 
hundreds of years old, possibly a thousand years old, when 
Moses led the chosen people out of Egypt. He also tells 
us how some of these noble relics of the past were cut down 
solely for the purpose of giving a party of novelty seekers 
a chance to dance upon the stump and tell about it after¬ 
wards ! 
The gift of beauty has been fatal to many of our birds. 
Man, selfishly regarding only present gain, has nearly or 
quite exterminated some of the most interesting species and 
seriously diminished the numbers of many of the common¬ 
er species. An awakening sense of sympathy has at last 
put a check on the wanton destruction of birds. Ornithol¬ 
ogists, bird lovers, sportsmen, agriculturalists, have com¬ 
bined their forces with such success as to influence public 
opinion and secure protective legislation from many of the 
state governments and also from the national government. 
As with birds, so with plants, the gift of beauty is likely 
to be fatal, and if, in addition to beauty, they also possess 
the gift of rarity, the doom of extinction is imminent. Man 
has cast his evil eye upon them. He must have them, he 
will have them, and he gets them ! The market must be 
supplied with wild flowers, no matter whence they come or 
how they are obtained. Country boys and girls must turn 
an honest penny by the sale of nosegays, though whole 
neighborhoods or sections may be devastated. The herb¬ 
arium must be supplied with the rare fern or orchid, even 
if another of the kind may never again be found in the vic¬ 
inity. 
So the necessity is upon us, true lovers of flowers and of 
plants, to initiate some reform in the relations of man to the 
plant world corresponding with that which has already been 
so successful in his relations to the bird world. Public opin- 
