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edge of ferns. Nor do we like subscribers to have incom- 

 plete volumes. If your set lacks a number here and there,, 

 let us know what numbers are missing before too late 

 and we will replace them free. All who have recently 

 asked for missing numbers should receive them with this 

 issue of the magazine. 



From the viewpoint of the radical botanist these are 

 the days in which history is being made. On all sides we 

 see evidences of the desire to change the names of plants 

 merely for the sake of change. The only excuse for giv- 

 ing a new name to a well-known plant that should be 

 considered valid is that it will aid the scientist in study- 

 ing it. And yet we constantly find botanists struggling 

 for mere change; some raising sections to generic rank, 

 some making so-called species out of varieties or forms, 

 others digging up forgotten generic and specific names, 

 and still others subdividing genera into new genera of 

 their own. When business gets dull, a few botanists get 

 together, make some rules useful to their purpose, and 

 begin the game all over again. We are forcibly reminded 

 of this by some recent publications, in one of which we 

 find that the genus Agaricus no longer includes the famil- 

 iar mushroom, but is now used for a shelf-fungus ! 

 Among ferns, Didymo glossum has tried to crowd out 

 Trichomanes, and Actinostachys has designs upon 

 Schizcea. Less than ten years ago, Aspidium tri foliation 

 went unchallenged in every book. Later it was intro- 

 duced into the society of those who favor a " stable " 

 nomenclature and baptized Tectaria trifoliata. But the 

 motto of the " stable " nomenclaturists is change, and the 

 plant is at this writing to be known as Tectaria heraclei- 

 folia, the name Tectaria trifoliata having departed at- 

 tached to some overlooked form in the West Indies. Its 

 orbit has not yet been calculated, and therefore it is not 

 known whether it will return to again perch upon our 

 species ; but if it does, we need not look for it under the 



