.^ EDITORIAL 1^. 



It is a long way yet to winter and the end of all ordinary 

 botanizing, bvit the time when we begin to withdraw indoors 

 and give more attention to books and writing is not so far 

 away. Now, therefore, is the time to set down in permanent 

 form an account of the season's experiences. A good many 

 people who read this statement may be inclined to think that 

 they have no botanical experiences worth recording but this 

 is probably incorrect. If you have seen no plant or flower 

 under conditions that made you exclaim over it. if there have 

 been no occasions when the presence of flowers have added 

 to your enjoyment, if you have found no flowers new to you 

 nor met with familiar flowers in new habitats, if you have 

 not been impresed with new beauties in some common species, 

 then you may perhaps be justified in asserting that you have 

 nothing to write about. Still, good botanical writing does not 

 consist entirely or even chiefly of descriptions. It deals more 

 with ideas and impressions. It is a failing of the novice to 

 think that plants must be described in technical language. He 

 may' be interested merely in the brilliancy of a certain flower, 

 but he thinks it necessary to mention the linear-lanceolate, 

 dentate, apiculate, chartaceous and pubescent leaves and may 

 even extend his technical remarks to the flowers themselves. 

 But that is not the way we describe a new flower to our 

 neighbor over the back fence and it is not the way to describe 

 it in print unless some question of its exact specific or gen- 

 eric relationship is up. Nor are articles which are largely 



