Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/256

252 Observatory controls three hundred acres of land in Massachusetts which serves as a preserve for native plants and animals. All the deciduous trees of the state and also the native flowering plants are now growing there under protection. As people become more and more devoted to nature study; when they see how much more beautiful the plants are in their haunts than in a wilted bouquet; when they gain more knowledge of botany and know the plants intimately, learning in what ways they struggle for existence; they will not need to be asked not to destroy the plants needlessly, but will unite themselves with the 'enlightened few' until they become the enlightened many. Then the gentian, the sabbatia, the epigæa, the orchids and other delicate plants, ill fitted to struggle for existence, but not necessarily unworthy to survive, will be protected and mutual aid will become a factor in their evolution.

Plant preservation depends partly upon the natural adaptation of plants to their environment and partly upon the attitude of people toward them. The very absence of beauty in some plants