188 THE PLANT WOELD 



people in these remote islands depend on vanilla for their prosperity. 

 The vanilla is an orchid of climbing habit, and hence the newly-planted 

 cuttings must be provided with trees or other supports. They require 

 very little care for the next eighteen months. The vines are then 

 pruned or "checked" to induce flowering. It is necessary to hand- 

 fertilize all the flowers, this work being done by women and children. 

 The pods grow to their full size in five or six weeks, and are then cut 

 and cured for the market. 



Editorial. 



With the present number The Plant World completes the fifth 

 year of its existence, and it is perhaps appropriate that we should in- 

 dulge in a brief retrospect. For a number of years the editor-in-chief 

 had in mind the establishment of a popular journal of botany, being 

 convinced that there was not only room, but a demand for a journal 

 that could present the interesting and popular side of plant-life 

 divested as far as possible of the technicalities. The plans were slowly 

 matured, were submitted to and met with the approval of a number of 

 eminent botanists, and finally, in October, 1897, The Plant World was 

 formally launched. During the first two years of its existence, owing 

 to an unfortunate business management, the journal did not succeed as 

 it might ; but since that time we are pleased to be able to state that its 

 l>rogress has been assured and steady. Within the past eighteen 

 months the subscription list has more than doubled, showing that be- 

 yond peradventure it has made a place for itself. Our subscribers are 

 scattered over every State in the Union, as well as in foreign countries, 

 and it is a matter of great satisfaction to the editors to receive, as we 

 do, words of commendation from our readers. We look back with per- 

 haps pardonable pride over these first five years. It was distinctly 

 stated when the journal was started, that it would not be the organ of 

 any party, or for the purpose of exploiting any particular phase of 

 botany or botanical nomenclature. This standard has been maintained. 

 Our contributors have been at liberty to write as they please, so long 

 as it is within the acknowledged scope of the journal, or to employ the 

 nomenclature that is most familiar to them. We have labored to make 

 The Plant World a journal of popular botany in the widest and best 

 acceptance of that term. Among our contributors are numbered a host 

 of well-known amateurs and popular writers, as well as a majority of 

 the leaders in American botanv. To all we return our sincere thanks. 



