NOTES AND COMMENT 303 



find itself dissipated over a field of small and immediate practicalities, 

 with its fundamental problems and important aims known only to 

 a small group of highly trained investigators, who will find themselves 

 isolated by the lack of being understood and hampered by the failure 

 of securing financial support for their work. It is not an easy matter 

 for the specialist to prepare articles of this character, but it is his duty 

 to do so. There is no group of men in America who are better quaU- 

 fied to perform such a service for botany than are the readers of this 

 journal, and it is hoped that some of the splendid support which has 

 filled its pages in past years v;ill be given it in future along the new 

 lines indicated as well as along the familiar ones. 



After this journal was taken over by The Plant World Association 

 in 1907 it depended for its financial support entirely on the income 

 from subscriptions and advertising, and on the personal efforts of the 

 members of the Association. During those years the journal was 

 run with a small annual deficit, which was met by members of the 

 Association, to whom interest-bearing notes were issued. During 

 this period the size of the journal was maintained at a definite num- 

 ber of pages and the most economical arrangements were made for 

 printing. 



In order to provide an endowment for The Plant World, one of the 

 members of the Association turned over to the journal the sale of ap- 

 paratus wliich he had devised in the course of his scientific work, there- 

 by making this apparatus generally available. Other members of the 

 Association have since turned over special apparatus or publications 

 to The Plant W^orld. The income derived from these sales has served 

 to meet the deficit during the last two years, although it has been neces- 

 sary to issue additional notes in order to secure a working capital for 

 the maintenance of a stock of the items sold. The steadily increas- 

 ing cost of printing and of illustrating has made very necessary the 

 additional income secured. The absence of an annual deficit, how- 

 ever, together with the loyal support which has been unfailingly given 

 the Managing Editor by the members of the Association, has made it 

 possible to issue a greater number of pages per annum and a larger 

 amount of illustration than would have been possible otherwise. The 

 generosity of our contributors has also been manifested on numerous 

 occasions in connection with the regrettable but necessary ruling that 

 articles more than 15 pages in length and illustrations in excess of four 

 must be paid for at cost. The journal is now in the position of being 



