TH]^: OUTDOOR WORLD 



207 



forms its spores in great quantity, not 

 many new plants are produced, and 

 these are slow to grow. For this rea- 

 son, let me beg my readers not to gath- 

 er it for Christmas greens, if they truly 

 love the wild flowers. For owing to 

 the many raids made on it this plant is 

 in danger of extermination. It is pe- 

 culiarly interesting as it is a remnant 

 of great antiquity, dating back to the 

 Carboniferous Period, when its ances- 

 tors formed huge forests in company 

 with the gigantic ferns and horsetails. 



Within the last few weeks a similar 

 undertaking has come into my work, 

 and this time the wild flowers. of the 

 country is the department of nature to 

 which my energies are to be devoted. 



Another Opening for the Study of 

 Wild Flowers. 



BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



If there be one time more than an- 

 other when nature students are to be 

 congratulated, it is when some fine 

 publication, devoted to the study of one 

 or more of the departments of natviral 

 history, sees its way to broadening 

 its field of operations, to the extent 

 of increasing its pages for the purpose 

 of establishing another avenue, in 

 which may appear contributions to an 

 additional field of inquiry. An excel- 

 lent example of my meaning was seen 

 when The Guide to Nature made the 

 venture and gave us its Department 

 of Ornithology ; for, much as there has 

 been written about birds and always 

 will be written in this country, there 

 are only too few publications and mag- 

 azines here in which may appear the 

 new pictures and the new thoughts 

 about them. 



I remember very well when, some fif- 

 teen or sixteen years ago, the late Mr. 

 A. C. Gould determined to incorporate 

 into the pages of Shooting and Fishing 

 a department to which he gave the 

 name of "Gleanings from Science." At 

 the very start this section of the paper 

 came under my editorial management ; 

 and, although I had conducted similar 

 sections in other journals and maga- 

 zines, I was very much surprised to 

 note the interest that was immediately 

 taken in this particular venture. Then, 

 too, it was successful financially. One 

 day Mr. Gould informed me that the 

 new department was responsible for 

 having very substantially added to his 

 list of subscribers, to the extent of sev- 

 eral hundreds, if my memory does not 

 fail me. 



FIG 1. SWAMP MAGNOLIA BLOSSOMS. 



Through an exceptional piece of good 

 fortune, I have been given the editor- 

 ship of this newly established depart- 

 ment in no less well known and influen- 

 tial magazine of the best class than 

 American Forestry, of vvhich Mr. Perci- 

 val S. Ridsdale is Editor-in-Chief. It 

 is the plan of this journal, in so far as 

 the Wild Flower Department is con- 

 cerned, to deal with the flowers of the 

 United States along popular, as well 

 as to some extent scientific lines. Con- 

 siderable attention will be given to 

 structural as well as to physiological 

 botany ; the blossoms of our trees, shrubs, 

 and plants will be described in terms 

 that all can comprehend, and in such 

 a way as to lead to the recognition of 

 the species described whenever met 

 with in nature or elsewhere. Special 

 stress will be placed upon the conser- 



