Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-07-15
Correspondence.
Teach the Children to Conserve the
Wild Flowers.
ELLSWORTH, ME-. July / 1914

W SuuSeTSe the
Wild Flowers.
ELLSWORTH, ME-, July /, 1914.
othe Editor of The American:
One OF the duties of the ipstructors in
eassar eohege is to teach the students to
respect the wild flowers.
Years ago the hills along the Hudson
river IN the vicinity OF Poughkeepsie
were covered with beautiful arbutus
vines. Many OF the young women who
came TO Vassar college had never seen the
mayhower, and they gathered it in ouanti-
ues 10Y themselves and to send away to
lneir friends. They tore up whole patches
oy the roots to get long stems. Now only
lew blossoms of inferior quality are to
be found on these hills.
That is one reason that the students and
professors at Vassar have formed a club
Tor the study of birds and wild flowers.
Ihis club they call the Wake Robin club,
IN honor OF John Burroughs, who lives at
west Park on the Hudson and frequently
visits the college to take walks with the
students and the professors.
The children Of the faculty have been
well trained. No vassar college baby
tears up plant by the roots. They are
very careful to pick only the blossom and
not injure the plant. They tell all their
friends how important it is to protect the
wild flowers. They guard the flowers on
the college grounds and the surrounding
woods zealously, and the locality abounds
in wild flowers, and Poughkeepsie in men.
women and children who are active in the
conservation of wild life.
All children should be taught that It is
no harm to take up plant OF which there
Is an abundance, such as the violet plant,
to set out in some suitable receptacle to
beautify the home or for study in the
schoolroom, but rare flowers, or common
flowers that belong to someone else,
should never be disturbed.
ALI little people love flowers, but they
do not respect their rights. Once / took
walk with several of the loveliest little
people that l knew. One OF their friends
destroyed two exquisite hobble bushes
and presented the children with armfuls
OF blossoms. II each child had bought
his bouquet at the dollhouse, 1t would have
cost him not less than five dollars. The
children on the walk, tore up the beauti.
full sprays, trimmed their hats and gowns
with them, and finally pelted each other
with the wilted remains, and dropped the
last fragment over the hedge before they
reached home.
II simply shows that many persons do
not allow themselves to become sensitive
to beauty. They accept standards handed
down to them. They have virtually been
taught that dollhouse and garden flowers
cost money, and therefore they must be
beautiful. Some OF them are. They are
in the condition OF the good mother OF a
Harvard professor who pays $3.50 for such
an atrocious Tiffany vase that the poor
man has had to make an agreement with
her to keep everything that she likes in
her own suite. He says pathetically, 81
can not live with them"
One little fellow that know is passion
ately fond Of flowers, but his love seems to
spend itself in the picking OF them. He is
not willing to care for them after they are
gathered. Before the lilacs are in bloom,
he can not resist picking huge punches of
them. He came in one day with hand
full. / said, "Thank you, do not care for
them. l like blossoms such as lilacs,
hyacinths, and syringa out in the fresh
air. In the house they make my head
ache" In few moments the little fellow
arose to go. "Aren't you going to take
your lilacs?" queried. mo, don't want
them" He took them out and dropped
them beside the street.
A baby always reaches out his hands for
everything that pleases him, and it is
natural for children 20 want everything
that is pretty, but they should be taught
to love the wild flowers so much that they
will not exterminate all the arbutus by
tearing it up by the roots, that they will
not break down every hobbie bush, wild
pear, bittersweet, wild cherry and Ameri-
can holly, on whose berries the birds de-
pend for food, and they should be taught
to pass beautiful wayside trees and hedges
without feeling impelled to make OF them
selves little vandsls. A child is more
manly, more womanly, more useful, il he
is only the champion of little wild
flower.
CoRDELIA J. STANwooD.