A Vanishing Flower It is a grim paradox that the
(alleged) lovers of our wild flowers are their most deadly enemies. Here is a lamentable example. In a particular meadow in the South grows. or grew, good quantities of the rather rare plant, the spiked Star of Bethlehem. A local botanist saw some twenty flowers and picked exactly one for a dried collection of wild flowers. On his next visit every flower was gone. They were traced, and this was the reply to a mild protest that it seemed a pity to -pick so many : " 0, it is a rare plant and only grows in a few places, of which this village is one. There was hardly any last year but plenty this year ; and I hare gathered the whole lot" ; and there was the bowlful to prove it. One would really think that many people do not understand that plants, perennials as well as annuals, grow from seed, and if seed is not allowed to set, diminish rapidly. It is feared that the spiked Star of Bethlehem may go the way of the Summer Ladies' Slipper, the Martagon lily, the Daphne Mezereon or Orchis purpurea, and many
another rarity.
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