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THE FERN BULLETIN 



tion to be had from the contemplation of a work con- 

 tinued successfully for such a natural period of time 

 as the fifth of a century. Only two other botanical 

 magazines have accomplished it and neither of these 

 were individual enterprises. Both had the backing of a 

 club or association. The lack of suitable manuscripts 

 relating to ferns, however, is patent to all The cur- 

 rent volume of a well-known eastern magazine de- 

 voted to botany failed to include a single note on ferns. 

 Of the twelve articles in the latest number of the only 

 Old World fern journal eleven are written by one in- 

 dividual, the editor, while an American publication 

 which claims to be devoted to ferns published in its last 

 issue only two fern articles and filled the rest of its 

 space with notes of travel. 



Quite aside from what tliis magazine has accomp- 

 lished for the study of ferns it has made several unique 

 records. It is the only botanical publication in this 

 country that has existed under a single editor for a fifth 

 of a century, and it is the only one at present that de- 

 pends upon its resources and does not look to some 

 group of benevolent individuals to make good a pos- 

 sible deficit ; in fact it never has had a deficit, in this 

 presenting a striking contrast to its competitors. Al- 

 though we have often been obliged by circumstances 

 to lag behind our dates of issue we have 'a record of 

 never doubling up on a volume by issuing one number 

 in place of two. Moreover, considering the number 

 of pages published the price has always been lower 

 than any other. From The Fern Bulletin has alscf 

 sprung another important journal, The Bryologist. For 

 two years this publication was issued as part of The 

 Fern Bulletin and only became a separate publication 

 with the beginning of its third volume. Later it be- 



