EDITORIAL. 



Some time ago it occurred to the editor that the Fern 

 Bulletin had been running long enough in one form to 

 deserve a change, and the present little surprise in cover 

 and text is the result. We doubt if some of our recent 

 subscribers will recognize the magazine at first sight, but 

 the old patrons have become somewhat "used to things of 

 this kind. Three times has the size of the page changed, 

 growing larger with age, but we are not going to enlarge 

 in that way again even if some of the wiseacres do con- 

 sider small size and insignificance synonymous. In the 

 other direction the magazine has grown immensely, for 

 it started as a four-page affair and grew by the addition 

 of four pages at a time until its present size was reached. 



There may be some who are inclined to think that the 

 delays in issuing recent numbers indicates that the maga- 

 zine is fast approaching a point where an early suspen- 

 sion of publication may be expected. Such, however, is 

 far from our ideas on the subject. We are too proud of 

 our claim to being the third oldest botanical publication 

 in America, to stop now, even if the large number of new 

 subscribers that have recently joined us, has not indi- 

 cated that the magazine's field of usefulness has not nar- 

 rowed in the least. We do not expect to suspend until 

 all the others have ceased from troubling. The chief 

 cause for the irregular appearance of tb^ magazine is the 

 fact that the editor is away from home teaching biology 

 in a city high school, and thus cannot always arrange to 

 have the number issued on time. 



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A few days ago a correspondent wrote that since no new 

 species had been discovered and no extensions of range 

 reported, he had nothing to write about for publication. 

 It is true that the species-tinkers and name- jugglers have 

 probably done their worst with American ferns ; but the 

 fact that there are no more new names or " new species " 

 to discuss is no reason for imagining the study of ferns 

 to be languishing. Xo one can become a true student of 

 any science until he gets over the delusion that the learn- 



