Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-28
on R WILD FLO WERs
MANY OF THEM ARE IN DANGER
OF EXTINCTION.
Those Who Love Them Best Are Those
Who Do Not Pick
Them.

There are tens of thousands of people
who love wild flowers we'll enough to pick
them; there seem to be few indeed who love
them so well that they can leave them on
their stalks. Yet those few are the real
lovers Of flowers; they do not demand the
death of the objects of their love. but let
the flowers live out their sunny lives They
seek to share their pleasure, not only
with their fellows of today, but with
millions yet unborn, whose only flow
ers must be the direct descendants of
those which have been left upon their
stalks The love which prompts some peo-
pie to gather armfuls of wild flowers is
often of a selfish nature; at best it is
thoughtless love. having no regard for the
future. Quite often II is a sign of vulgar
lily and indicates that the one who picks the
mowers is possessed of the idea that
II there is beauty in single flower
there must be great beauty in arinful.
a single rose is a beautiful object;
bank of roses il q hideous display which
can appeal only to those who attempt to
measure beauty by the standards of guam
tity and cost.
OF course, the destruction of our wild
flowers is due to many causes, and some of
these the building of towns and the Gull
tivation of farms. for example, are not to
be controlled. Others, like excessive lum-
bering operations, may be controlled in
time, but there are many causes which may
be checked almost at once. and they must
be IL we would save from determination
some of our most highly valued plants.
for checking them. for some of the early
spring flowers are amongst those most bad
ly in need of protection.
Already Getting Scarce.
The Mayfiower. or trailing arbutus for
example, lovable not only for its beauty AMI
fragrance, but for its associations has al
ready disappeared from many localities in
which at one time it was common, and is
rapidly growing scarce in many other
places. This decrease is due largely to
the gathering of enormous quantities for
wild flowers should be stopped by law 1t
has been stopped in some of the European
countries, but some Of them waited until
1t was almost too late. Until such law
can be framed and put in force. property
owners could do much good by posting
tees forbidding espassing-trespassing for
the purpose of gathering rare wild flowers,
at least. And as DR.. Robert T. Jackson of
Cambridge has pointed out in recent able
address before the Massachusetts, Hort
cultural Society, public sentiment could do
much to stop the sale of such flowers. BY
refusing to purchase them the pubic would
show commendable pride and quickly kill
a traffic which threatens the very existence
of some of our favorite plants.
Nor should we be unduly Influenced by
the fact that many of the people who sell
wealth has anything to do with the matter.
When people undertake to make their liv-
ing by wronging the country, whether it
be by destroying the beauty of Niagara
Falls that they may take the water for
commercial purposes, or by extermnating
the trailing arbutus that they may for a
few years more get a dollar or so by ped
ding the last sprays on the city streets,
they should be suppressed.
A Great Mistake
of the wild flowers is the excessive picking
by school children Not for worlds would
1 suggest that children Should not be al
lowed to pick wild flowers; 1t is In the hope
that children may forever have the delight
of picking them that this article is written.
But they should be taught that each wild
flower is living, precious thing, and that
to destroy it thoughtiessly is a great mis-
take
The teachers throughout the country
could make themselves a power for good
in this matter, as they do in so many
others, by teaching the children modera-
ton in the plucking of flowers. Instead of
allowing them to go out into the woods
and bring back wilted sheaves of mlScel-.
laneous blossoms in their hot hands why
not send them to definite places for limited
numbers of particular flowers which are
known to grow there. giving them simple
instructions for keeping the flowers fresh
until they return? The flowers would then
be in good condition for study. and when
they finally died there would be feeling
that they had done some good. How many
millions of flowers l wonder are everv year
thrown away at the roadside before the
children reach home or school. are cast
on the ash heap rubbish" with never a
word to suggest to the children that 1t
would have been far better to have left
them in the woods.
The Greater the Danger.
The rarer the flower, of course, the more
danger there is that it will disappear. The
children may pluck thousands of the COM
rnoner flowers without doing much apparent
harm, but one little hand may unthinkingly
exterminate the only colony of ladies' Slip
pers or fringed gentians there may be in
a locality. Above all. they should be in
structed to be careful of the roots of the
plants; the latter may survive the picking
of the blossoms, but when the roots are
torn up there is an end of course.
Perhaps the worst root destroyers are
those who collect the roots for medicinal
purposes. They gather such plants as
blood root and Soiomons seal, and many
Others and they should be prevented from
doing this, because these plants may be
easily cultivated on commercial scale.
similar plants are grown for this purpose
in Europe.
In many places there have been organ
lied societies for the protection of native
plants, and these are doing for the wild
flowers pretty much what the Audubon so
cieties are doing for the birds. All such
societies are more less beneficial as
they at least call peoples attention to what
1t is desirable to do. and most people want
to do what is desirable If their attention is
called to it, and if it is not too much trouble,
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES
Acoustics and Heat