380 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 90. 



cal work methodical and productive,^ lays 

 a great deal of stress on the early se- 

 lection of a form of publication for the re- 

 sults of each important study. This done, 

 the work continually shapes itself to this 

 end. Frequently there is much difficulty 

 in securing the publication of a monograph 

 or memoir in precisely the form and place 

 desired by the author, but there is seldom 

 an insuperable obstacle in the way of pub- 

 lishing any really meritorious work in 

 about the manner wished, provided it is 

 suitably prepared. 



In general, it is desirable that works of 

 a given class should be so published that, 

 in seeking one, a reader is likely to learn of 

 another. This appears less important for 

 books than for shorter papers, since the ar- 

 rangement of independently issued volumes 

 in a library, and the fact that they are cata- 

 logued by authors, render it relatively easy 

 to learn of and have access to them ; but 

 even here one finds no little convenience 

 in the recognition that a book by a given 

 author on a given subject is quite likely to 

 be listed in the catalogue of a certain pub- 

 lishing house. Smaller papers, which are 

 usually published in the proceedings of 

 some society, or in a scientific journal, may 

 almost be said to be made or ruined by the 

 place selected for their publication. Prob- 

 ably as library facilities increase and are 

 more thoroughly classified and subject- 

 indexed, this will become less true than it 

 now is, though the underlying reason for it 

 will remain. Usually a reader turns to the 

 popular journals only when looking for 

 popularized science, and is not likely to 

 seek the original results of research there, 

 so that such papers are nearly or quite lost 

 for a long time if published in these jour- 

 nals. As research has now become spe- 

 cialized, the journals devoted to the publi- 

 cation of its results have gradually fallen 



* La Phytographie, ou I'art de decrire les vegetaux 

 consider^s sous differ ents points de vue. Paris, 1880. 



into line as special journals. Except where 

 they are chiefly devoted to digests and 

 abstracts, few nominally general journals 

 now exist which do not lean so strongly to- 

 ward a specialty that one unconsciously 

 classes them with it, notwithstanding the 

 extraneous matter that they contain. 

 While nothing once published is ever abso- 

 lutely 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 confusion and 

 strife in botanical nomenclature arises from 

 the comparatively recent unearthing of de- 

 scriptions 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 decreasing number of 

 special papers are likely to be published in 

 general journals, which will become more 

 and more popular or bibliographic in their 

 nature, with the exception that the neces- 

 sarily slow differentiation of learned socie- 

 ties into special sections 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 printing them, and except by 

 the comparatively few botanists who enjoy 

 the privilege of membership in purely bo- 

 tanical societies with publishing facilities, 

 they must be accepted for the present, not- 

 withstanding the attendant disadvantages. 

 Shorter papers, however, can usually find 

 room in the journals, and except in cases 

 where they possess a temporary and excep- 

 tional 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 pe- 

 riodical devoted exclusively to botany, and 



