(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) | ~ 
The Scottish Naturalist 
Nos. III AND 112.]| 1921 [ MarcH-APRIL. 
Aes COmbisk NATURES Ss UINION 
“Ve take a stick and break it ; bind a score 
All in one faggot, snap it over knee, 
Ye cannot.” 
—TENNYSON. 
ONE by one the sticks are being broken. One after another 
the publications of the local Natural History Societies of 
Scotland are ceasing to appear. The causes are always the 
same: the advanced costs of paper, printing, and the labour 
involved in publishing have increased beyond the capacity 
of local subscriptions and local generosity. The result bodes 
ill for the progress of nature study in Scotland, a country 
which may well be proud of its naturalists’ tradition; for 
when the means of expression have gone there is danger 
that the local research, which forms the soul of a country’s 
scientific life, may die also. 
How can the danger be avoided? How can the local 
expression be ensured without involving a financial burden 
too great to be borne? There is only one way, and if the 
naturalists of Scotland value their heritage they will see that 
it is followed—the sticks must be bound into an unbreakable 
faggot. The Societies must follow the signs of the times: 
isolated effort must be supplemented by a Union held 
together by the bond of common interest, such a Union as 
will make secure the steady onward march of nature know- 
ledge throughout the land. 
TSANG lel? E 
