February I, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



109 



sive of papers read at numerous meetings 

 of local societies. In the meantime many 

 more additional papers have appeared in 

 print. According to a computation by 

 G. P. Scott Elliot, there were printed in 

 1905 more than a quarter of a million 

 pages of botanical contributions, in eight 

 or nine different languages. By 1914 this 

 number must have been increased to at 

 least 300,000 pages, though there has been 

 a falling off in England and Europe since 

 the outbreak of the war. But only a por- 

 tion of the annual output of manuscript 

 is provided for. Most of our botanical 

 periodicals now have in hand copy enough 

 to more than fill their next volume, and 

 some are eighteen months ahead. 



How are the necessary additional facili- 

 ties to be secured? The most economical 

 way, for both publisher and subscriber, 

 would be to enlarge existing magazines, in- 

 creasing the number of pages, and the fre- 

 quency of issue, and where necessary, ma- 

 king two voliunes a year. The overhead 

 charges for publishing would thus not be 

 greatly, if any, increased, and there would 

 be an immense gain in restricting the num- 

 ber of separate journals to be cited, to be 

 kept track of, and subscribed for. 



The problem is also closely bound up 

 with that of botanical organization, to be 

 briefly spoken of in a moment. Three sepa- 

 rate societies, each with a membership of 

 five or six hundred, and annual dues of 

 from five or six dollars, might, with suc- 

 cessful advertising and a subsidy, each is- 

 sue a specialized magazine of modest pro- 

 portions. But where are the subscribers to 

 be found? Chiefly among botanists, of 

 course; but the minimum number neces- 

 sary for each journal would mean a total 

 membership of from 1,500 to 1,800. To se- 

 cure this would necessitate considerable 

 overlapping of membership. For one per- 

 son to support all three would entail dues 



of from $15 to $18, in addition to subscrib- 

 ing to any abstract journal that might be 

 established. With other professional de- 

 mands, such a tax would be burdensome or 

 prohibitive to many, if not the majority, 

 and would entail the great disadvantage of 

 depriving them of ready access (which 

 one's personal copy gives) to literature not 

 direetlj^ bearing on their special interest, 

 though more or less related to it. Nothing 

 could be more unfortunate, though an ab- 

 stract journal or a journal along the lines 

 of Science Progress, would tend to counter- 

 act this. 



Before further steps are taken toward 

 the establisliment of additional periodicals, 

 careful consideration should be given to 

 the question of how existing journals may 

 be enlarged or modified to meet the pres- 

 ent needs, and what kind of additional 

 journal, if any, is needed. It is not im- 

 probable that an annual pajTuent of not 

 more than ten dollars might suffice to meet 

 membership dues in an enlarged Botanical 

 Society of America, and at the same time 

 enable the member to receive two and pos- 

 sibly three periodicals. The chemists have 

 already accomplished this. I do not mean 

 these words to have an air of finality, but 

 merely to present phases of the problem 

 that should be given most thoughtful con- 

 sideration. 



2. Abstract Journal. — The very bulk of 

 publication has now rendered a journal of 

 botanical abstracts a most urgent neces- 

 sity. No one, if he desired, could possibly 

 find time to read aU the articles published 

 in full ; not even those more directly in line 

 with his own special interest. To keep rea- 

 sonably intelligent as to what is going on 

 in botany outside of one's own specialty is 

 almost impossible. The "Notes for Stu- 

 dents" in the Botanical Gazette, and the 

 abstracts in the Experiment Station Rec- 



