14 ADDRESS OF THE EDITOR. [January, 



terras ; as they are unpaid, we must receive them on the conditions 

 imposed by the contributaries. 



But it is a great mistake, and one which has often been cor- 

 rected, to assert that any article printed in the ' Phytologist ' is 

 anonymous. This however has been repeatedly and pertinaciously 

 affirmed, and there is no more truth in it than there is in the 

 equally positive affirmation that the omission of the 192nd page 

 of the third volume of the Thytologist,^ either before or after the 

 entry of the page where the obnoxious plant, the Balearian 

 Arenaria, is entered for the first time as a plant new to Scotland, 

 was a significant proof of the mala fides, the faithlessness, of the 

 Editor. 



The Editor has asserted over and over again that he takes on 

 himself the entire responsibility of every article that is printed 

 in the ' Phytologist.^ In order to save himself from the conse- 

 quences of omissions, blunders, etc., he prints no facts whatever, 

 however trivial, on anonymous authority. Although a very few 

 contributions have the appearance of being anonymous, because 

 they are subscribed by a letter or by two letters, sometimes with 

 initials of real names> and sometimes with fictitious names, their 

 authors are all known to the Editor. • 



As these contributions, which are apparently though not really 

 anonymous, form a considerable portion of the trading stock of the 

 grievance-mongers, and are also, it may be admitted, occasional 

 sources of embarrassment, trouble, and vexation to the Editor, a 

 brief explanation may be here given, and we hope it will convince 

 the convincible that this is one of the encumbrances insepar- 

 able from our editorial functions. 



By prescriptive right, all reviewers are entitled to the privilege 

 of secret or irresponsible publication. It is sometimes supposed 

 that the Editor writes the reviews, but several of our contributors 

 know that they are not all written by the Editor ; but they are all, 

 very properly, anonymous. Many reviews, in modern times, are 

 such milk-and-water messes, such wishy washy affairs, that any- 

 body might write them, and the most timid might subscribe 

 his name at their conclusion. But they are privileged articles. 

 It would be non selon les regies, — " contrary to custom,^' — for the 

 author of these articles to sign his name as a guarantee for 

 the genuineness of his article. 



Again, all communications from the fair sex are by universal 



