BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Vol. XV. AUGUST, 1879. No. 8. 



Editohiai.. — There are times when an editor needs to say . a Tew 

 words face to face with his patrons, and we conceive this to he one 

 of tiiose times. We fear that since the (Gazette has been grovvin^r 

 in size and favor we have lost some unpretentious notes and con- 

 tributors tliat we were In tiie habit of having when it was limited to 

 four ])ages and a small subscriptif)n list. The subscription list is 

 still small enouiiii, Kjo small in fact, l)ut tlie nages are more numer- 

 ous, not to repel notes but to attract them. It is a mistaken idea 

 that we now want only articles that are regular monographs, con- 

 taining days and weeks of study, for we are still after the short 

 notes, not containing so very much in themselves, but in the aggregate 

 making a spicy and interesting journal. A magazine should con- 

 tain not only the heavy and solid matter lit for students to bother 

 their brains about and the ordinary reader to lay aside in despair, 

 but it should also contain the froth and sparkle of sj)icy notes that 

 any one can read with interest. A prime rule in writing to inter- 

 est is to be brief. Condense what you have to say in a few words 

 and give us the cream, we have no time to drink t!ie milk. One 

 hundred persons will read a short note when only one will read it if 

 thinned out and spread over a greater surface. Even so scientific 

 an observer as Draper had to be blamed for his wordy style in re- 

 <!ording his results. It will be remembered that when he studied the 

 assimilation of plants by means of the spectroscope and jiublished 

 his results, grand as they were, Dr. Gray, in reviewing the paper, 

 felt compelled to say that the whole subject was like an omelette in 

 which Senebier furnished the egg, DeSaussure the milk and Draper 

 the intumescence. We hope our readers now will all send us some 

 short, pithy notes and by this interchange of courtesies they will all 

 be pleased. We mean simply to act as a medium through wliicli our 

 subscril)ers may talk with one another, a sort of monthly telephone 

 — and not a machine to grind out articles for tlieir benefit. We can 

 fill the Gazette, tliere is no trouble about tliat, but we want more 

 variety. 



