New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-19

River and filed large pasteboard boxes
newspapers and arms with wild geraniums
jack-n- the-pulpit and blood root, all up
rooted Some even had branches of dog
wood ard young ash and maple trees
The signs in the New York Botanical
Garden read: do not pick or break plant,
leaf or flower" and all flowers brought
in or taken out at the entrances of the
garden are conflscated, IL possible! After
the children had gone the road they had
walked on was strewn with papers, boxes
and withered flowers and branches or the
iacks-in- the-pulpit four hundred ana ten
had been taken with roots and were heeled
in at the nurseries TO await chance for
REMAINING them. The teachers declined TO
give their names or the number OF their
school and when taken 10 task for allow
ing such dsgraceful vandalism they asked ;
"Wby. can't they pick the wild flowers?
and What il the Use of taking the chill
dren on May walks. If they can't pick
oWersq" A simple mathematical calcula-
ton. which could he made at the Board Of
Education. would show how many Jacks
the public schools Of New York City would
take. II each class averaged two hundred
plants!
The Park Department foreman, when
confronted by the results Of his careless
permission, qualified It by saving that he
meant dandelions and violets, hut admitted
that he had not specified any particular
kinds nor forbidden taking the roots. Dan
delions, like the English sparrows, are out
side the pale OF all law, being foreign
weed not native wild flower, and 1t has
been customary 10 allow children and 1tal-
fans TO gather them. But even this priv
ilege leads 10 trouble. for the children scat
! ter the flowers all around the walks. and
the Italians dig holes and uproot pieces or
sod. and the boys carve their names on
and cut the bark and branches of the trees
In view Of the frequent and thoughtless
vandalism to which all the parks OF greater
New York are subjected the question arises
whether any commissioner or superinten-
dent of parks should give permission TO any
one 10 take public property which Is in
trusted TO their care for the benefit and
pleasure of all. Would they give permits
sion to pick violets If they knew that the
children Of Fordham and Belmont come up
into the park, pick all the violets they can
find and then sell them on the Pelham
Parkway for FIVE ard ten cents bunch?
And il children are allowed to pick ono
thing what is to prevent them from picking
ALI? There are enough people now VINO
take plants without permission, even in
spite of signs. fences and policemen. This
same foreman volunteered the information
that the previous Saturday May party
had taken all their lilacs. They could not
watch all the flowers, he said. Evidently
they cannot for early last Sunday, I'm Van
Cortlandt Park. every lilac bush was COM
pletely stripped OF all its blossoms, prob
ably for sale
People OF good taste. who really appre-
ciate their loneliness, prefer to leave lilacs
on the bushes, for they last much longer
and their color is more brilliant and pleas
ing out Of doors. as il also their fragrance.
| But for the people who are shut up In
downtown tenements and sweatshops all
the week II is less surprising II they want
| to pick the flowers that they never see at
any other time. The Sunday crowds are
always the most destructive, because they
are mostly composed OF foreigners, many
of whom do not read English. and think
this "a free country and that they can
do as they please in the parks, though they
always admit that in the country they
came from there are fines varying from a
| few francs or marks to several dollars for
similar offences. Every Sunday, particu-
| larly in May. at the New York Botanical
Garden the flowers that are confiscated fill a
barrel and are carted away by wheebarrow
loads, and occasionally there is CARLOAD.
Even among educated and well-to-do
| people there seems TO be general i'm
preston that wild flowers grow any
| how" and do not need either roots or
seeds to perpetuate their kind. Now. this
may be largely thoughtlessness or ignor-
snce. but some of 1t Is selfishness and will
funess, for last Saturday afternoon a
woman and man In q carriage had
drawn up at the side of one Of the roads
In the Botanical Garden and their child.
with it's nurse. was filling the back seat
of the carriage with wild flowers. The
woman said that she had done IL for years
and had once been a school teacher and
! claimed the right TO pick them in spite
Of the signs. WHICH. according to her In