EDITORIAL RETROSPECT 



Eight months ago the Journal was launched with a mixture of 

 hope and douht, but a determination to succeed, and it may not be 

 without interest briefly to review its progress. The object, as ex- 

 plained in the circular inviting contributions, and in the first editorial, 

 was to be the publication, in the first place, of original botanical work 

 done in India or on Indian plants, which would not naturally appear 

 in the existing, somewhat technical, journals of this country and, 

 in the second, of abstracts or reviews of other papers likely to be of 

 interest to workers in India. Though supported by nearly every im- 

 portant botanist in India, the proposal met with misgivings from 

 several who thought the " times were not yet ripe. " " You will be 

 fifty years in advance of your time " wrote one friend ; " It may 

 start all right but will soon fizzle out " said another. 



The idea was for quite a moderate journal of about 24 pages, 

 but to appear monthly, so as to allow of rapid publication of work. 

 The first number appeared, in September, and except in February, 

 when pressure of other work at the Press prevented publication, and 

 the next was therefore a 'double number', the issues have been 

 monthly. The present and the January issues are also 'double', so 

 that in the eight months ten numbers have appeared with an average 

 of over thirty pages of original matter and diagrams and about four 

 of abstracts to each. The original papers have been on nearly every 

 branch of pure botany, i.e., on Fungi, Algae, Liverworts, Mosses, 

 Gymnosperms, the taxonomy of flowering plants, General and Physio- 

 logical Histology and Morphology, Physiology, Oecology and a Syste- 

 matic Flora of a country. Abstracts and reviews have appeared of 

 over 50 papers and books, and occupied 40 pages of small type. 



All this has been possible only with the active co-operation of 

 botanists in India who have not only subscribed to the Journal, but 

 also contributed to its pages : and it proves, I think we may claim, 

 that the Journal has met a need, that botanical work in India was 

 advanced enough for it, that the times were ripe. It remains to 

 disprove the pessimist and keep the Journal alive. I have no fear 

 about this. The Journal has started successfully, and won't fizzle 

 out. It now circulates all over India, — though Bengal rather 

 lags behind the other Provinces — in Canada, the U.S.A., England, 

 Italy, Ceylon, Singapore, Australia and even Fiji : and without doubt 

 the close of another year will see it covering a wider area and with 



