What exactly is to be done ? First as to
law. Thirteen backward county councils have taken no steps. The best have adopted this by-law " No person shall uproot any fern or other plants growing in any road, lane, roadside waste, roadside bank or hedge, common or other place to which the public have access." Such a by-law should be adopted and proclaimed as clearly as the bird protection by-laws. So much for negative protection. Constructive is better. The best example of the sanctuary or public park that I have seen or of which I know is Hawksmoor in Staffordshire, secured largely by the efforts of a relation and namesake of the Poet Laureate. It is a wild and very lovely place near crowded populations, but preservation and public enjoyment are very successfully combined, as also in Leicestershire. One does not like the idea of the deliberate sowing or planting of flowers indiscriminately ; and it is altogether abhorrent to the botanist who studies " ecology," and the principles of habita- tion. But there is a satisfactory compromise, and it is to be prac- tised by the North Staffordshire Field Club. They will intro- duce to Hawksmoor and protect there "all those species of plants that are found growing naturally" in similar
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