WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION. 
41 
They are still beautiful in spite of the fact that from most of them 
the more delicate plants have been entirely exterminated. In 
South Cheyenne Canyon, for example, there are to-day very few 
ferns, and yet it is not so many years since the canyon was noted 
for the beauty of its fern vegetation. These ferns have been 
ruthlessly destroyed by tourists who wanted plants to carry for 
an hour or two, and then to throw away. This 'canyon has 
been very greatly injured in its beauty by the destruction of these 
delicate ferns. 
A number of years ago it was my good fortune to visit a little 
dell in the Harney Peak region of the Black Hills, in South 
Dakota. The party with which I went was the first which had 
ever visited the place. Certain hardy prospectors had been there, 
but no party of “ outsiders ” had been there before we went. 
We found a beautiful bed of mosses covering a number of square 
rods. I do not think I have ever seen in any place in the world 
a prettier sight than that of these tall Pogonatums with their 
rich dark green color. There were several children in the party, 
and they rolled over this beautiful moss in ecstasy, and even the 
grown people felt that they were in a most romantic dell. We 
did not injure the mosses, but the next day a party of “ tourists ” 
followed our track, and one of the women who came back showed 
us with great glee a large mass of this beautiful moss rolled up 
as one would roll up a mat. She had ripped up these things of 
beauty, and torn them ruthlessly from where they had grown for 
years. We were so intensely disgusted with this vandalism that 
we showed our indignation very plainly. She undid in five 
minutes the work of perhaps many decades. 
I once knew in central Iowa a big bog full of the rich lady 
slipper (Cypripedium spectabile) which bloomed from year to 
year in great profusion, but it was near to a college, and the stu¬ 
dents took more and more of the specimens away, and finally an 
eastern botanist wishing roots of this plant, was supplied with 
them, and apparently the whole bog was denuded of them. I 
visited the place some years afterwards and found not a trace of 
these fine orchids. Apparently a large, showy plant is much 
more likely to be exterminated than one which is less showy. 
