BRIEFER ARTICLES 
ILLUSTRATING BOTANICAL PAPERS 
Long editorial experience in various methods of illustration of the 
Botanical GazettE has convinced me that much more adequate and 
satisfactory results might be secured if authors knew something of the 
modern methods for reproducing photographs and drawings, and par- 
ticularly of the requisites for success. Requests for information of this 
kind, as well as the need felt in the editorial rooms, have determined me 
to discuss, as briefly as possible, the more important points. 
The first question for author and editor to settle is this: Shall the 
figures be distributed "in the text or aggregated into plates? Too often 
this is unconsidered or decided in conformity to a custom which arose out 
of necessity in the past. The process of engraving wood and metal 
by hand was the original and very costly method of illustrating books 
and monographs. (The journal and short paper were not then in exist- 
ence.) The invention of lithography offered a vastly cheaper method, 
which was quickly adopted. The advantage of having figures close to 
the text they illustrated was surrendered, chiefly on account of the financial 
advantage, and partly because better effects could be secured by the new 
Process. Modern methods, however, have made possible again the use 
of the text cut at the point where the figure will be of the most service to 
the reader. It is highly illogical, therefore, to conclude that because 
lithographed plates were used in the last century to illustrate the best 
‘scientific treatises and monographs, this mode of illustration is today 
evidence of first-class work. Yet novices are liable to precisely that mis- 
conception. There are some cases in which plates are still preferable 
to text cuts; e. g., when a large series of figures must be before the eye 
at once, or when the same figure must be referred to at many points. But 
these cases are much rarer than the prevalence of plates would indicate. 
Rather this prevalence indicates a want of consideration by the author, 
who from habit demands plates for a paper, but would never think of 
illustrating a book so. Having determined whether text cuts or plates 
are best, the mode of reproduction must be selected, for it is absolutely 
necessary to adapt the drawings to the chosen mode. Aes 
At present the following forms of illustrations appear in scientific 
journals: (1) lithographs; (2) photolithographs; (3) photogravures; (4) 
59] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 43 
