Show lei rd 4 9 WILD 0 S OD by ELMO SCOTT WATSON T LAST laar we are to have a it national loral floral emblem af i at least we shall have one it if the wishes of the people made mada known as aa alio tie result of a nation wide referendum are translated into legislative action by congress vor for by a big majority 1 the american people have chosen the hie wild rose as aa tile tha national lower flower in a voting contest conducted by ahe the american nature association which closed recently when the bal ballots lots were counted it was waa found that out of a total of the wild rose had polled votes almost twice ns as many as those received by tho the columbine the nearest contender so there seems to be no doubt as to the wild roses preem pre em indence in popular favor the columb columbine lire received votes which in turn was mora than twice as aa many asi those received rec elved by the runner up the violet which hart had fourth place went to the goldenrod with votes the 1 big lg tour four in this contest simply ran away from the other candidates for the phlox which early in the campaign was listed with the goldenrod as aa a strong contender received only votes the american beauty rose received the daisy the mountain laurel and the dogwood A total of vot votes a are listed hated as scattering since they were cast tor for various other flowe flowers 1 8 not named by the american aatu vatu nature re 11 in announcing the result of the election the wild rose won in every state e capt colorado florida minnesota anti and washington without any group actively a c working tor for it with no cant cam laign committee in any state and with a number of organizations active ly trying to defeat it it withstood every assault upon the lead gained parly early in the campaign the columbine supported eup ported vigorously by the newly organized columbine society during the last lays days of the referendum had backers who threatened durin early december to sweep under tinder the rose in a flood of votes when tit contest closed however the leader W was as gaining how decisive was the choice of the people says arthur newton puck pack eil ed aitor of nature magazine tile the clat publication of the american nature association asso clation Is indicated by the stand ing of the seven other leading bandt dates more afore than G 65 per cent it t vote was divided beti between veen the two leaders anti and thereas there Is no question ot of these being the national favorites tile the vio let goldenrod american beauty rose phlox daisy dogwood and mountain laurel which finished in the wd orde listed never had a chance of victory victors all the other flowers ll grouped unde scattering 1 received hut 3 per ceril cent of the total tile national flower campaign was begun late in etim lias first to engender nn an interest and love for wild lowers flowers sp condly to promote their conserva tion alon find and thirdly to direct attention to nature generally gene roily mr rack pack also points out the fact that this referendum reflects tile the sentiment of the nation in the matter of choosing a national floyer flover since the lillior votes I 1 cast probably represent as ag larace a proportion of nature lovers ng as do the totals in a presidential election lit in represent ing the grand total of eligible voters lie regards it cs as significant that the proportionate vote cast for tile the lending varied marled little the ballot marls had been pissed except in the last days of the cam in addition to cr crystallizing zing sentiment in favor of a national flower the referendum tied had other beneficial results he be believes concerning these he says bays the referendum has been eminently successful A targe large pro proportion porton of school children voted vo tec along catiz en i ship alln s suggested by the asso clai i tion in such a manner that there 14 1 4 no BO question of the tha benefit they de dei i rived A typical campaign Is the one conducted by bk the franklin junior high school of oreen green nay day via where all tho state lowers flowers and cana candidates izates were illustrated on the school board ani and preceded the actual voting by a month educators who assisted the totting in more than A dozen states have as seated that the campaign cam malign has foste fostered zed citizenship by giving the school ahli children opportunity la in a national VIOLET e event veu t it also alsi created knowledge or of history and nature both of which hod had to be studied to arrive tin he at an intelligent opinion while the tracing of adult education Is much more difficult the asso elation feels confident that the intel est eat expressed through the votes was not merely for the moment in more than thirty commonwealths state wide campal campaigns gris were conducted b local organizations the garden club of america the daughters of the american the general fed aeration ern alon of Wortie ns clubs the state and national organizations of camp and girl scouts the columbine society nature clubs and con groups scattered over the entire nation took a significant par in achieving the result in choosing the wild rose as our nn nit cionni symbol new honor has been paid to a flower which has haa always been a favorite of mankind two thousand years ago in athens the rose was crowned queen of the flowers but even before that the romantic songs and legends legend of the babylonians persians and the chinese testified to the fact that it was cultivated in the earliest es t days it became the national emblem of england and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it gave its name to a long series of civil warr the war of the roses between the adherents lie rents of the house of york who w wore re the white rose and those of them the 0 louse of lancaster who wore the red rose burly in the tha recent campaign op Ionell polenta ts of the rose used as on an mint ment against it that it was the eng en lish flower but tills this was wag refuted I 1 the he statement that that emblem la Is the cultivated rose whereas the one tot foi which votes were being eln sou sought lit was tin the wild rose which grows in dir different ferent vv vi in every state in the union the campaign did not designate one particular variety of wild rose but left it possible for each community t to feel that its local representative of the genus was tile the choice of the coun try for this reason the states of geor ala 11 town iowa new york and north da liotti oti can tal tau e pride in the fact tha thab their state emblem has hoen been chosen its a the national lover flower the list of stati stat flowers Is its as follows atal alaba 4 at sahuaro cacti aa A aeple pl bl blossom ballf 16 i P poy py colorado d Columb liw t mountain 11 I laurel II I DI dir delaware r ph P h bl blossom florida 0 ane r all blockom 13 georgia 1391 91 Chorol coa roe mb idaho imiri illi ts valt adi etli I 1 arc Q lower r iowa WM rw kai 1 Suii loer T pt Is I s L ija 11 aft 11 main iP pl lM ton bryla Mry land san s an mas i 4 mayflower mchan adjip alne m mi ot raa Nisen cila Ml 11 th fontao Mon A tao bitter I root mot nka N ka goldenrod d nd N d esst saab bh b h N new H paa i appl ppl mae lilac N nw Je ary rEy violet nw york R re new N mi m malco i catus nth north aroun Cr oUn north dakota Dx kot emirl pi tarl ran ohio S 00 CI h 0 oron s orron arp apa N NM iid 3 south th C arcin Cr cin Y bollow 11 JI J I south avota DV ota P Q flow lower To bonek neK i ten n lowr T ams was BIlK b bonnet t utah 4 SC seo MY ly vont V ont i red rd clover arnia Ameri cut doc d W hi aca wt W t WI c st 1 I mow wr a L lajom palt hh h h j COLUMBINE it will be noticed from the above th atut at pennsylvania Is the only state which does docs not have a state flower curiously enough it was the keystone state which led all the others other in the total number ot of votes cast in the recent referendum pennsylvanian Pennsyl total was votes ohio was second with new york third with 63 and wisconsin fourth with an analysis of vote by states in relation to state flowers reveals some interesting te facts since the columbine Is the state flower of colorado it was natural to expect that colorado should livemore give more votes to that flower than to ti tiny any other and it did although it gave only more mor vo votes tes to the col than to the w wild 1 id rose fourteen other states gave more to votes tes to the colorado state flower t than ban did that state itself washington supporting it more vigorously than any other with vote V 0 tes the votes by states for tile rose the winner and the ataee ee leading cor coi tenders wasas was as follows wild colum cou state n rosa ba bieu ewt eed alb alabab 1918 M arizona 1020 ak 1933 80 auf i 2092 colorado 1837 connecticut OS 1797 Dl dawar war 1 18 5 1 D C 20 9 florida Fior liSa goral georiga 1103 1106 idaho cidh 2533 2623 iwon 45 indiana indian 2037 1664 I 1 iowa 2 CI 2 5 3 6 8 5 3 K kama I 1 0 2 7 9 4 1204 ac kentucky t ky 2318 louisiana boulb ito mains main 73 i ei maryland 1753 ma 3 minnesota MI sot issel 1 76 io 1303 2421 Mi masour sour ri i 2318 23 8 montana 1 1217 nebraska aia 1530 1630 N nevada nd d 33 N new I 1 I ahir s I 1 1008 S 1 bs Z S 2 3 3 N now Jr jr 17 7 3 3 6 07 1 1734 new N w mo me aco 24 3 nw new york yok north C carolina 11 2299 2295 1703 2123 N north fh dalt dakota 1197 iasa ohio oklahoma 2358 1401 84 ag oregon 1203 1206 1062 1213 1243 12 13 P 1 V 1 ta 17 t ae 7 rhoda I 1 ii rod CI at south caronna Ca ISO sou south h dakota 1 2333 2383 ane tennesse 2203 2 81 texas 1410 utah 2143 2145 1501 1 48 43 27 1140 1440 es 68 virginia 2149 2145 71 mi W shinsho sini ini 1 as I 1 vat VA t vl an 1 i 1217 1 1720 1720 als in lab 22 aa no state SI 13 48 43 40 total the violet Is 13 the state flower of illinois new jersey ithone island and wisconsin yet both illinois and new jersey gave more votes to both tl the wild rose and the columbine than khan th they ey did to their own mm state flower noth both aitho rhode tie island and wisconsin gave gae more votra votes to the wild rose thuri than to tho the violet but both placed the colum blue third in the running A similar situation Is shown in nebraska and north carolina where the goldenrod la Is the state flower iloth both states voted for the wild rose over their state lower flower in nebraska the goldenrod was second with the columbine third and the violet fourth kut but in north carolina the state flower was placed third beating out only the violet another interesting development was the failure 0 of the phlox a leading aling le contender early in the campaign to make a good race for the honors especially ally when lt it apparently had a i many points in its favor one of its ha strongest supporters was dr edgr T wherry a well knorn bot aalst and ehe chemist mist |