EDITORIAL. 



Since the United States is to have colonial possessions, a word 

 may be said regarding the opportunities offered for valuable botanical 

 work. Within a short time many people will be visiting these new 

 lands, either for pleasure or business, and it is hoped that some of 

 them may find time to collect and preserve as complete a representa- 

 tion of the flora as possible, with the view of having prepared satis- 

 factory descriptive works. Take for instance the case of Porto Rico. 

 At the present time almost nothing is known of the flora of this island, 

 and a wealth of interesting material undoubtedly awaits the collector. 

 With commendable activity the New York Botanical Garden has al- 

 ready arranged for a botanical expedition to the island. The United 

 Fish Commission is also organizing an expedition for the same place. 

 While devoting their attention primarily to the study of the fauna, 

 it is understood that they will also collect marine and adjacent shore 

 plants. The opportunities for study in the great Philippine group are 

 also alluring. 



* 



The ignorance concerning our familiar native plants that often 

 obtains among those interested in gardening is well illustrated in the 

 following astounding sentence from a correspondent of one of our 

 well known floricultural journals: 



" I would also recommend ***** a. plsint called C/emah's crz'spa, the 

 original of which was introduced in this country from the West Indies by my great- 

 grandmother." 



The editor of the journal gently dispels this " beautiful illusion " 

 as he calls it, by the explanation that Clematis crispa is a native plant. 

 Probably no member of the genus is more familiar to the natives of 

 the region throughout which it grows, from Virginia to Texas. It is 

 scarcely necessary to observe that this correspondent gives a northern 

 address. 



In the incident above quoted is to be found the strongest indorse- 

 ment of the need for exactly such periodicals as Plant World. The 

 ready sale of all well-written volumes devoted to popular botany at- 

 tests the interest felt by the people in this attractive branch of 

 biology, and they require only the facts of plant life presented in 

 readable and comprehensive form to derive positive benefit there- 

 from. And if this is true of the ordinary individual, how much more 

 forcibly it applies to those who, like the correspondent above quoted, 

 •are engaged in plant cultivation and possibly also in plant study. 

 There is a tendency among many botanists of modern days to scorn 



