114 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



The great war made the book situation still more seri- 

 ous by doubling and trebling tlie cost of everything that goes 

 to the making of books. In consequence the publisher can no 

 longer take a chance on a small edition of a new book. A 

 failure costs too much. He must now be assured in advance 

 that a work offered for publication will sell into the thousands. 

 The decision as to what is or what is not a good book is thus 

 shifted from the public to the publisher who is as likely to 

 guess wrong as right, and so suppress many worthy manu- 

 scripts. Moreover, high costs require that stocks be turned 

 over quickl}-. A really valuable book may sell so slowly 

 that a new edition is unprofitable and it is regretfully allowed 

 to go out of print. Practically the only exception to this rule 

 are school-books which, being bought in larger quantities 

 usually have a longer run. 



Twenty years ago, there was a lively interest in nature 

 and nature-books, but the moving pictures have largely taken 

 the place of reading and the automobile has made botanical 

 excursions quite plebeian. The old-fashioned individual who 

 still finds entertainment in field and forest is likely to be 

 astonished when he inquires for the books relating to botany 

 that he used to know. Nearly all have disappeared. Mrs. 

 Dana's "According to Season," Mrs. Creevey's "Recreations 

 in Botany," Going's "With the W^ildflowers," Henshaw's 

 "Mountain Wildflowers," Lounsberry's "Guide to the Wild- 

 flowers," Gibson's "Blossom Hosts and Insect Guests" and 

 a host of other "how-to-know" books have gone out of print. 

 Even Britton's "Manual" has gone the way of all things and 

 Underwood's "Our Native Ferns and their Allies" — the latter 

 after running through six editions. In fact there has been 

 a great mortality among fern-books. Waters' "Ferns," Bee- 

 croft's "Who's Who among the Ferns," Eastman's "New 



