1896] BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY 215 
standing the extraneous matter that they contain. While noth- 
ing once published is ever absolutely lost, all of this extraneous 
matter is likely to be overlooked by the persons most interested 
in the subjects considered. No small part of the present con- 
fusion and strife in botanical nomenclature arises from the com- 
paratively recent unearthing of descriptions and names of plants 
published in such improbable or inaccessible places as to have 
escaped the attention of those whom they might have helped 
most, to be brought to light at a later date as great mischief 
makers. From now on, then, it may be concluded that a decreas- 
ing number of special papers are likely to be published in gen- 
eral journals, which will become more and more popular or 
bibliographic in their nature, with the exception that the neces- 
sarily slow differentiation of learned societies into special sec- 
tions will for a long time cause the. proceedings of many of the 
older to continue of the most miscellaneous character. Where 
papers are lengthy, though not adapted to publication in book 
form, such proceedings virtually offer the only means of print- 
ing them, and, except by the comparatively few botanists who 
paiet é the privilege of membership in purely botanical societies 
with publishing facilities, they must be accepted for the present, 
notwithstanding the attendant disadvantages. Shorter papers, 
however, can usually find room in the journals, and except in 
cases where they possess a temporary and exceptional value for 
the columns of a popular or general journal, or one devoted to 
another subject to which in some manner they are relevant, they 
are best published in a periodical exclusively devoted to botany, 
and, in most cases, in one devoted as closely as may be to their 
particular branch of botany, provided it have a fair general cir- 
culation and, especially, provided it reach the principal botanical 
libraries, 
Especially in the earlier years of their work, writers are 
sometimes given to distributing their papers among a number of 
ea Except for the purpose of specialization just referred 
» this is usually a mistake. Knowledge that a certain student 
has published on a given subject is often first obtained through 
