1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. i47 



press. (2) That authors' separate copies should be issued with 

 the original pagination and plate-numbers clearly indicated on each 

 page and plate, and with a reference to the original place of publica- 

 tion. (3) That authors' separate copies should not be distributed 

 privately before the paper has been published in the regular manner. 



" The committee, however, observes that these customs are by 

 no means universal, and constant complaints are made that one or 

 other of them is not put into force. In case the publication or society 

 with which you are connected does not comply with these desiderata, 

 the committee ventures to ask whether it would not be possible for it 

 so to comply in future. Should you, however, have any good reasons 

 against the adoption of these suggestions, the committee would be 

 much obliged if you would kindly inform them of your reasons, in 

 order that they may be guided in their future action. 



" The committee further begs to ask for your co-operation in the 

 following matter. There are certain rules of conduct upon which the 

 best workers are agreed, but which it is impossible to enforce, and to 

 which it is difficult to convert the mass of writers. These are : 

 (4) That it is desirable to express the subject of one's paper in its 

 title, while keeping the title as concise as possible. (5) That new 

 species should be properly diagnosed and figured when possible. 

 (6) That new names should not be proposed in irrelevant footnotes, or 

 anonymous paragraphs. (7) That references to previous publications 

 should be made fully and correctly, if possible in accordance with one 

 of the recognised sets of rules for quotation, such as that recently 

 adopted by the French Zoological Society. 



" The committee ventures to point out that these and similar 

 matters are wholly within the control of editors {redaction) and pub- 

 lishing committees, and any assistance which you can lend in putting 

 them into effect will be valued, not merely by the committee, but, we 

 feel sure, by zoologists in general." 



We have much pleasure in giving further publicity to the request 

 of the committee, but in these matters our own conscience is clear. 

 The printers of Natural Science have always had strict orders to 

 obey the instructions i, 2, and 3 of the committee, while the editors 

 have always attempted to induce their contributors to follow sugges- 

 tions 4, 5, 6, and 7. In this attempt they will continue, but they take 

 this opportunity of pointing out to their contributors how greatly 

 editorial labours can be lightened by closer attention to some of these 

 small details. 



Pitfalls in Botanv. 



The great bugbear of the student of botany just at present is 

 the stele. It cannot be avoided, for it confronts him at every examina- 

 tion. He gets the latest text-book and grinds it up, or tries to do so, 

 for the result is often hopeless muddle. It looks plain sailing enough. 

 There are the three primordial layers at the growing-point (at least 

 the figures in his text-book show them) : dcrmatogen, developing into 

 epidevMts ; plcrome, forming the central stele ; and periblem, yielding the 

 extra-stelar tissue between the stele and the epidermis. The limit of 

 the extra-stelar tissue is the endodermis, a layer characterised by the 

 presence of starch in its cells and curious thickenings on its radial 



M 2 



