THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 99 



addition to his stock of knowledge increases his capacity 

 of absorbing more from books. Not until one knows as 

 much on the subject as the author of the book, will he be 



warranted in laying it aside, 



* * 

 * 



Nor should the line be drawn at books. Any good 

 scientific magazine will bear a second reading, but we are 

 ordinarily in such haste to get the ver3^ latest word on the 

 subject that we quite overlook the great mass of sound 

 information to be obtained from this source. Those who 

 cannot indulge their taste for new magazines to the limit 

 are advised to take down the old ones for another perusal. 

 The late Thomas Meehan, perhaps the best informed bot- 

 anist of the preceding generation, once expressed to the 

 writer his opinion that it would be far better to render 

 the matter in past publications available by copious in- 

 dexing than to establish a new publication. But so reso- 

 lutely has the public set its face toward the future that 

 new publications spring into favor while those of the past 



are neglected. 



* * 



» 



Libraries are still being accumulated, especially 

 libraries of scientific books. One maybe satisfied to know 

 that the latest novel may be had at the nearest circulat- 

 ing liljrary, but who would be willing to have his botani- 

 cal volumes even that far away ? The scientific works 

 that we seldom have to consult mny remain in such a 

 place, but we want the others near at hand ready for use. 

 There are certain lines along which every individual is in- 

 terested. Let him get all the literature on these special 

 subjects, and buy sparingly of other books and he will find 

 the accumulation of a library- a most important item in 

 his advancement. 



* 



A correspondent who finds the present arrangement of 



matter in the botanical publications unsatisfactory- writes 



as follows: "I would like to see all botanical mas^azines 



published in separable form, each article on a separate or 



