ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE SOCIETY 23 
am sure the hearty thanks of every member would be 
offered in return. 
The report of the Secretary will tell you that we have 
just about held our own as to membership. The So- 
ciety needs a few more members very much and I want 
to state as briefly as I can just why they are needed. 
The question of finances requires considerable attention 
from your officers. They have made a careful estimate 
of probable income and expenditure for the coming year, 
and it sums up as follows: 
xpected income from memberships, subscriptions, etc......... .. $280.00 
Estimated expense for printing membership lists, postage, mail- 
ing el OURNAL, supplies for curator, and expenses of editors an 
officer: F tee 73.00 
eces $7.00 for unexpected expense we have avail- 
able for printing the Journat $200.00. This will just 
about pay for printing four issues of a 32-page JouRNAL 
without illustrations. The editors have abundant 
material on hand to fill an even larger number of pages, 
but cannot print them on account of the expense; and 
also they are obliged, if we have illustrated articles, to 
ask the contributors to help defray the cost of the neces- 
sary plates. If we had 300 instead of 225 members, the 
additional cost to the Society for the new members 
would be very slight and the income could be used to 
make the JoURNAL more attractive and funds would be 
available for the Society herbarium. If we are to have 
the new members desired, they must come through the 
individual efforts of members. Promiscuous adver- 
tising is almost useless, but personal effort with those 
known to be interested in ferns will bring results. Some 
large libraries and educational institutions are sub- 
seribers to the JourNaL. They are a valuable asset to 
the Society and more such subscriptions could be se- 
cured if our members who are acquainted with the 
proper officials would bring the JourNnat to their at- 
tention. 
