TE On ee Se ENS Pe 
1900 | BRIEFER ARTICLES 67 
botanists, it would be possible to issue such a journal directed by a 
number of capable editors who should receive pay for their services, it 
being understood, however, that such a journal would pay its way 
without leaving a profit. To secure a good result, it seems to be 
necessary that certain competent persons should be paid for writing 
the reviews. Gratuitous notices written by the authors themselves 
cannot be depended on, for authors are given to prolixity in review- 
ing their own works. In a recent Betheft of the Centralblatt is a 
review covering twenty-five pages, written by the author himself! In 
this case a single page would have answered every purpose and it 
would have been cheaper to pay someone to write that page than to 
pay for the printing of twenty-five pages. 
As a last alternative, if no other arrangement can be made, the fol- 
lowing tentative experiment might be tried. By private subscription 
a sum might be raised to establish a journal which, for five years, 
should give the record of botanical literature in a single country, our 
own for instance. The experiment might be worth trying, and, at the 
end of five years, if the experiment proves successful, the journal could 
be made to cover a larger field on an independent footing. If unsuc- 
cessful, it could be abandoned, probably without much loss.— W. G. 
FaRLow, Cambridge, Mass. 
