— TN EDITORIAL / , . 



^ o o ^ 



When we decided to change this magazine from a 

 monthly to a quarterly at a reduced price, we had some con- 

 cern as to how our subscribers would accept the change. We 

 are glad to report that up to the present we have not lost a 

 subscriber in consequence of it. And we are inclined to think 

 that the present issue will strengthen the good impression the 

 magazine is making. Owing to the fact that our stock of odd 

 numbers is about exhausted, we no longer offer to send copies 

 of the numbers of the first 13 volumes to replace soiled or 

 missing numbers. We also limit the offer of back volumes to 

 subscribers at half price to the ten days following the receipt 

 of this number. After that the discount to subscribers will be 

 20%. During the past month we have sold more back num- 

 bers than in the entire year preceding and subscribers generally 

 have shown a disposition to take advantage of our remarkably 

 liberal offer and fill up their sets. If you intend to have a 

 complete file of the magazine do not delay longer. Some of 

 the early volumes are becoming rare. 



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Without doubt there are many people who never get very 

 deeply interested in botany because so much of it is to them 

 as a sealed book. They may be attracted by the beauty and 

 perfume of the flowers, but any further study of the plants so 

 soon leads into a maze of technicalities that the majority give 

 up in disgust. Even the botanical magazines, though 

 popular enough at the start, soon grow^ to be too 

 technical for any but those who started with them. 

 We have long been of the opinion, however, that any 

 magazine should not be run entirely for the most learned 

 among its readers, but the great difficulty has always been to 

 get some one who could handle a department for younger 



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