256 
The pressure on our pages for the publication of original matter is 
such that it has at times been seriously debated whether we ought 
not to abandon the “ Index,” and the labor of keeping it up and 
attempting to scan all the periodical literature of the day, has made 
most serious inroads upon our time. We believe that we have 
recorded the great bulk of botanical papers relating to American 
plants during the time the “ Index” has been carried along (1886- 
1893), but that there have been noteworthy omissions is certain, 
and we have been forced to notice hundreds of articles by title 
only, which would have been abstracted, if there had been more 
time and space. 
One method of carrying out the Gazette’s suggestion, and it 
may be the most practical method, so far as the preparation of the 
material goes, would be for persons at each of the botanical cen- 
tres to make themselves responsible for certain of the journals and 
society publications, abstract the papers therein and send the ab- 
stracts to a central point to be collated and arranged: the ab- 
stracts to be written on blanks prepared for the purpose. It would 
be necessary for some one to act as editor-in-chief, and that there 
should be a large number of abstractors as associates. The first 
thing to be done would be to ascertain just what periodicals were 
regularly received at each of the centres participating in the work, 
and then to assign the periodicals. The books and pamphlets 
printed as such would naturally be assigned to persons whose 
work lay along the lines of the subjects treated. As to publica- 
tion, we conceive that this should be regularly conducted at inter- 
vals, say of three months, which would make in effect another bo- 
tanical journal. The “Gazette” doubts that this would pay for 
itself from subscriptions. But would not this be an appropriate 
organ for the «‘ Botanical Society of America,” proposed by Pro- 
fessor Bailey at the Rochester meeting of the American Associa- 
tion, and for the organization of which a committee was then ap- 
pointed? (See BULLETIN xix. 294.) We believe that there are as 
many as 200 botanists in America who would be willing to form 
such an organization with dues at five dollars per annum, which 
would provide an income of $1000 irrespective of sales, and the 
number of botanists in the country is steadily increasing. Such a — 
sum as this would warrant the printing and distribution of 600 or 
700 pages annually. oe 
