100 THE AMERICAN BOTAOTS'T, 



separable sheet, no two genera treated on the same sheet, 

 with uniform headings, as might be done by agreement, 

 among the various publishers. Then, those who like the 

 present unfindable arrangement can keep right on with it^ 

 and those who like to file things where the\' can be found 

 when wanted^can separate their magazines and file alpha- 

 betically. I have such a mass of periodical literature,, 

 government reports, odds and ends, "separates" and the 

 like, that they are practically useless to me. It is such a 

 bother to look up an article^ the exact location of which I 

 do not remember, that I do not look it up at all. It 

 w'ould be to the common interest to make the change and 

 it would not trouble those w^ho do not want it." The 

 proposition that publishers adopt some such scheme as. 

 here outlined is sufficient novel to be interesting. It can- 

 not be denied, however, that a vast amount of informa- 

 tion is constantly being lost by being buried under an ever 

 increasing amount of new literature. Thus it is possible 

 for a student to take up a problem for investigation quite 

 unaw^are that others have settled the same question 

 earlier. Yet it is doubtful whether a magazine issued as 

 suggested would meet with favor; we are too accustomed 

 to the appearance of present day magazines to make the 

 change. However, if we ever do come to such things we 

 would add to our correspondent's suggestion that the 

 magazines should also adopt a standard size of page and 

 type. At present, in lieu of the separate articles, we must 

 depend for a finding list upon the indices published in the 

 magazines. The Fern Bulletin prints each quarter a list 

 of all articles on ferns and fern allies aj^pearing in Ameri- 

 can publications, and the Torrey Bulletin prints a monthly 

 list of articles on botany in general, later reprinting each 

 item on a card ready for indexing. This index, however, 

 includes only the longer articles appearing and so is often 

 likely to miss most important notes. What we need is 

 someone to compile a complete list monthly, but it is like- 

 ly such a list would cost too much to make the venture 

 profitable. 



