THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 91 



covered his senses, he found himself being carried back to 



camp where the rest of his porters had remained. Many of 



the band were severely sick and many half witted with the 



continued effect of the scent." The botanist who reads this 



account is likely to wonder whether the story was not written 



up by one of those half-witted members of the party. It would 



have required some such condition of mind, we are inclined 



to think, to perceive the headwaters of the Andes. But the 



query which sticks longest in mind is, why should anybody 



take the trouble to make up such preposterous stories when a 



multitude of the wonders of the plant world are still to be 



adequately described. 



* * * 



We regret to announce the demise of The Magazine 

 Flozifers which was begun under very auspicious circumstances 

 early in the year but which was discontinued after the issue of 

 four numbers. The magazine was much like The American 

 Botanist and backed by a publishing house with large re- 

 sources we were led to hope that it would be able to do 

 more for the science than we have been able to accomplish, 

 but no equipment seems adequate to negotiate the almost im- 

 possible task of issuing a successful — a financially successful 

 — magazine of popular botany. The new magazine has be- 

 come a department of Suburban Life. Its retirement from the 

 field leaves our magazine alone in its chosen field again, but 

 jogging along in the same old way. When we note the suc- 

 cessive surrender of one out-door magazine after another, we 

 often wonder whether there ever will come a time when th^ 

 general public will forsake nickel theaters and moving picture 

 shows for the more satisfying pleasures of the study of nature. 

 Meanwhile we continue doing what we can to awaken an in- 

 terest in such things being possessed of much of the spirit of 

 the Irishman who hearing that parrots often live to be 200 

 years old bought a specimen with the intention of proving the 

 matter by experiment. 



