■ EGlitorieil. ^ 



The great mortality a mono: youthful scientific journals 

 continues unabated. The latest to give up the struggle is 

 the Journal of Microscopy published for six years by the 

 Bausch & Ivomb Optical Co. The Gamophyllous also 

 came to an untimely end recently after a life of nearly three 

 years. It is scandalous but true that much more than 

 half the scientific literature issued in America appears in 

 journals that could not exist but for subsidies from some 

 scientific club or educational institution. Independent 

 publications are exceedingly rare. Lest these latter leave 

 the field entirely, it behooves the scientifically inclined to 

 do his share tow^ard keeping deserving publications go- 

 ing. If you value any of the botanical magazines, sub- 

 scribe for them if only to encourage the editors. To be 

 sure the}' are in the business more for the love of botany 

 than for the money there is in it, though the occasional 

 sight of the coin of the realm is a wonderful stimulus 



toward more and better work. 



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A while ago a botanical correspondent in a confiding 

 mood wrote, "If a man could only live and support him- 

 self on compliments, I should fare first rate. Even maga- 

 zines of high grade will accept my contributions, cover me 

 with flattery, but own up that the}^ are too poor to pay. 

 It never seems to occur to them that I, too, may need a 

 dollar." The reason editors pay in compliments instead 

 of cash is because the one is so much more easily obtained 

 than the other. No doubt the compliments are all de- 

 served — the contributor who writes without pav comes 

 next to the editor of a botanical publication in the matter 

 of deserving comphments— but all of us know that cash is 



more acceptable. 



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It is said that more than sixty thousand copies of a 

 popular guide to the wild flowers have been sold. The 

 botanical editor ruminating on this fact is constantly ask- 



