The NYTimes carried this sad [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/opinion/our-vanishing-flowers.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0) about the disappearance of many flower species. Given the intimate linguistic connection between flowers and flourishing, I experienced a deep sense of sadness as I read the story. Here’s the opening paragraph.
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Ours is one of the most colorful relationships of history: We need flowers for our very survival, and in turn flowers — the plants that exist as crop cultivars or horticultural cut flowers or potted beauties — rely on us to reproduce and spread. But all is not well in this storied partnership: We who behold or nurture flowers are condemning their wild relatives to extinction at an alarming rate, and the world is quickly becoming a lesser place without them.
The article also brought to mind a folk song by Peter Seeger that also makes me very sad. This is just the first verse. It gets even more poignant as it goes.
> Where have all the flowers gone?
> Long time passing
> Where have all the flowers gone?
> Long time ago
> Where have all the flowers gone?
> Girls have picked them every one
> When will they ever learn?
> When will they ever learn?
You can listen to Seeger doing the whole song here.