EDITORIAL. 



It has been an open secret for a year or more that 

 we intend to combine this publication with The Ameri- 

 can Botanist when it has finished its twentieth volume, 

 that is, two years from the present date. It is a rare 

 thing in the history of botanical publications for one 

 to cease existence so long as its revenues are sufficient 

 to keep it going; in fact the lack of the wherewithal 

 to settle with the printer has usually caused the demise 

 of such ventures. We, however, have no such reason 

 for ceasing publication. The receipts from the journal 

 are still in a satisfactory condition, but for several 

 years there has been a decided lull in the amount of 

 fern literature appearing, thus constantly rendering it 

 more difficult to secure enough acceptable manuscript. 

 This lull is in no respect due to a lack of in- 

 terest in the subject of ferns for there are more people 

 studying them at present than ever before, but so many 

 books of a popular nature on the subject have now ap- 

 peared that the need for such a publication is not as 

 great as it once was. When we began publication 

 there was not a single popular book on American 

 ferns in existence. Robinson's book on fern growing 

 and the earlier editions of Underwood's somewhat 

 technical work were all that were available. Now 

 there are at least a dozen volumes that aim to make 

 fern study easy. When the first numbers of the Fern 

 Bulletin appeared, very little was known of the distribu- 

 tion of the various species but the ranges have since 

 become so well known that not much more is to be 

 said on the subject. The haunts and habits of our 

 ferns have become well-known and we have therefore 

 decided to quit while the quitting is good. Of course 

 there will continue to be more or less that is new 

 about ferns to be published but this we purpose issuing 



