105 
EprirorriAL WorxK 
During 1939 the 29th year of my connection with the editorial 
staff of the American Fern Journal was completed. During most 
of that period the Botanic Garden has served as a basis for this 
editorial work, and during the latter years the back files of the 
Journal have been housed and serviced here at the Garden. In 
February a special meeting of the American Fern Society was held 
at the Botanic Garden, with an exhibit of a large number of fern 
photographs. The meeting included a conference of editors of 
the Journal, of the officers of the Fern Society, and a general 
business meeting, as well as an inspection of the Botanic Garden 
Collection of ferns. 
During the year a number of reviews were prepared and pub- 
lished—chiefly in Science and in Torreya, the latter at the request 
of the Editor, Mr. George T. Hastings. 
PLANT CONSERVATION 
Plant conservation continues as a subject of widespread interest, 
and during the summer the writer was called upon to speak at a 
general conservation meeting held at Bolton, Lake George, New 
York. At that time, it was a matter of great interest to learn of 
a definite gain in the field of native plant conservation, which has 
been the result of the amendment to the New York State Con- 
servation Law, sponsored in Brooklyn Botanic Garden publica- 
tions some fifteen years ago. That amendment consisted in the 
listing of a number of rare plant species (see “ The Plant Wards 
of New York State,” Brooklyn Botanic Garden Leaflets, Series 
18, No. 5) as protected forms not to be picked and collected on 
public lands. Some people in plant conservation at that time were 
disposed to belittle the value of such laws in a campaign horsthe 
protection of native species. However, a concrete gain may be 
cited in a resolution adopted by the Federated Garden Clubs of 
New York State, Inc., forwarded by Mrs. John W. Draper, State 
Chairman of Conservation, by which the use in garden shows of 
member-clubs of any of the plant species protected by New York 
State law is banned. These protected species are admissible, ac- 
