THE FERN BULLETIN 



59 



rowed from the Society or begged from susceptible 

 friends, the shoe is on the other foot. Not a single 

 number of the new American Fern Journal has ap- 

 peared on time and there are no indications at present 

 that there will be much of a change in this respect. In 

 one other matter the new publication is inferior to the 

 old. For eighteen years the Fern Society ran its 

 magazine without assuming the role of a mendicant 

 but as soon as a change to a new publication was made, 

 an urgent call for funds was issued. If the Fern So- 

 ciety cannot conduct its publication without soliciting 

 contributions, it had better go out of business. As 

 for the make-up of the new publication, the fact that it 

 is a duplication of The Fern Bulletin has not escaped 

 notice. A writer in Science observes regarding it, 

 "While the Fern Journal does not cover exactly the 

 field already, occupied by the Fern Bulletin, published 

 by W. N. Clute, the latter being much less technical, 

 it must be confessed that they are rather too nearly 

 alike and one is led to wonder whether there is room 

 in this country for two journals devoted to such a 

 small group of plants as the ferns." Of course there is 

 not room but nobody need expect us to move along 

 just a little so that the highly unnecessary interloper 

 may get a foothold. 



* * * 



At a congress of botanists from all parts of the 

 world held in Vienna in June, 1905 certain rules were 

 agreed upon to govern the application of scientific 

 names to plants. This was not a snap convention. 

 The suggested rules had previously been printed and 

 sent to those who attended the congress and there was 

 a studied attempt made to make rules that would re- 

 sult in a uniform and stable nomenclature. Every- 

 body with ideas to suggest was given a respectful 



