WILD PLANTS.

Forest and Bird, Issue 29, 1 April 1933, Page 9

WILD PLANTS.

Easy access to all parts of the countryside by city dwellers is menacing wild flowers and wild plants in many parts of the world. In Australia a law has been enacted prohibiting the sale of wild flowers, as it was feared that the plants would be so depleted of their flowers that insufficient seed would be available for their propagation. Bylaws against the uprooting of wild plants have existed in certain English Counties for many years; in Hertfordshire, for example, since 1915, and the County Councils Association model by-law has now been adopted by forty-two counties and sub-counties. It is as follows: — “No person shall (unless authorised by the owner or occupier, if any, or by law so to do) uproot any ferns or other plants growing in any road, lane, roadside waste, roadside bank or hedge, common or other places to which the public have access. “ Every person who shall offend against the foregoing by-law shall be liable for every such offence to a fine not exceeding, for the first offence, Forty Shillings, and for a subsequent offence not exceeding Five Pounds.”