A DESTRUCT! V it PROPOSAL.
[To ram Eorron or los "SrrovAroo."J
STR,—In the Spectator of February 9th Mr. Charles A. Witchell expresses a fear that the encouragement of young persons to make school collections of objects of natural history will tend to the destruction of rare plants and animals. With the sentiment which prompts your correspondent no one can have more sympathy than myself, but I think there is little ground for his anxiety. The destruction in all accessible places in many English counties of the ferns and wild flowers which not many years ago decenited the lanes and copses by myriads is indeed lamentable ; but this is the work of those 'who dig up every specimen of such beautiful objects and take them by cartloads to sell in the cities and suburbs, and in very small degree due to collectors and experts, who should be, and generally are, the last persons to root out interesting specimens from their habitats. The collect- ing of specimens of the fauna and flora of any locality is recognised in every progressive country as a valuable means of education, and nothing is more likely to induce intelligent youths to pay attention to the objects of their own neighbourhood than the making of such a collection, and the comparison of the specimens with sets obtained from other countries. The destruction of rare plants and other natural objects, when not done for the sake of gain, is generally due to ignorance ; and the more we can spread a knowledge of Nature and her wonderful ways, the more likely are we to check such mischief. If Mr. Witchell could see some of the interesting collections made by boys and girls of such common objects as leaves of various shapes, of the grasses in a pasture. field, of seeds to illustrate Nature's many methods of securing their distribution, and so on, I hope that he would change his opinion, and give the project put before the League of the
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