THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 123 



Other group of scientists of like attainments anywhere. And 

 the botanists, themselves, are usually so animated by a love 

 of the subject that they do not complain. The contributors 

 to the botanical magazines write without pay, the editors de- 

 vote their time and talents without thought of compensation 

 and the publishers half expect to find themselves in a finan- 

 cial hole at the end of the year. As a matter of fact, we can- 

 not recall a single botanical magazine now published except 

 The American Botanist that is not backed up by some soci- 

 ety pledged to make good any deficit and usually called upon 

 each year to do so. Since this magazine is not backed up by 

 a botanical society, we find it necessary to make it pay its own 

 way. We have practically said to it what nature has said to 

 the flowers, namely, if you cannot survive without aid, you 

 must perish. Thus far the magazine has survived and we ex- 

 pect it to go right on surviving, but at this time, when, a large 

 number of subscriptions are due, we would call attention to 

 the fact that an increased subscription list will mean a better, 

 or rather a larger magazine. We see all the botanical maga- 

 zines published in America, and we know there are none bet- 

 ter if judged solely by the amount of information supplied. 

 Of course there are many larger, but the technical articles, 

 which interest only the few, take up much of the space. It is 

 not the easiest thing in the world to find subscribers interested 

 in our particular kind of botany. It requires a pretty thor- 

 ough knowledge of plants in order to appreciate a great deal 

 of the matter we publish, and the majority of botanizers are, 

 unfortunately for us, interested in little more than the names 

 of plants. It is a satisfaction to know, however, that once a 

 subscriber is secured we rarely lose him and sooner or later he 

 orders a set of the back numbers. So we purpose continuing 

 our endeavor to please our present audience and to urge 

 our friends to help us increase it. We send out bills with this 

 issue to all whose subscriptions expire or have expired and 



