34 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



should be understood by everybody that this is a demo- 

 cratic association and every observer is welcome. What 

 we want are the facts. Though the first announcement of 

 this plan is scarcely two months old as this is written, the 

 list of those who have agreed to join us is already a long 

 one and more are coming in daily. 



3fC 3JC 3|C 



When up the street the postman comes, a merry 

 roundelay he hums, for well he knows that he will bring us 

 news that cheers like everything. Upon our desk he piles 

 with care, mail postmarked almost everywhere. Then as 

 we shuck the letter pile, we notice every little while, the 

 checks that we can swap for ink, and type, and paper, food 

 and drink, while postage stamps and dollar bills the air with 

 their sweet rustle fills. This is the stuff that buys our 

 stocks and keeps this journal off the rocks ! But money's 

 not the only thing that makes us lift our voice and sing. It 

 happens nearly every day. Some old subscriber writes to 

 say "I like your style ; it pleases me ; so I have written two 

 or three short contributions just to show how notes, botan- 

 ical should go." Then we arise and take the hint and turn 

 those writings into print while every reader whoops with 

 glee," "This journal's picking up, I see." But as we rest our 

 nerve and brain we carol, oft, this sweet refrain: We — 

 thanks to gods and fates and elves — don't have to write it 



all ourselves ! 



* * * 



According to press dispatches, Rev. J. A. Nieuwland, 

 editor of the Midland Naturalist, has invented a new kind of 

 explosive that makes the most deadly of those now in use 

 look like a bunch of fire-crackers, a still further proof that 



