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ferns than all other American publications put together. At the 

 recent Paris Exposition, it was one of the publications to be 

 awarded the Grand Prize. 



To find subscribers enough to make such a publication self- 

 supporting has not been the easiest of tasks as may be inferred 

 by any one who reflects how few students of ferns there are in 

 his own vicinity. We have had to sift a great share of the 

 habitable globe for our purpose and the magazine now goes to 

 every State in the Union except two, and also to Canada, Mexico, 

 England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, India, Japan, 

 New Zealand, the Philippines, Cuba, Porto Rico and Jamaica. 



At the beginning of the Fern Bulletin's career, the few 

 botanists who were studying ferns were doing so independently 

 and often without a knowledge of the existence of others engaged 

 in the same pursuit. The Fern Chapter, with the aid of the maga- 

 zine, has been instrumental in uniting these students into one 

 strong association, which is not only the largest society of fern 

 students in existence, but one of the largest of American botanical 

 societies. Comparatively few members are personally acquainted 

 but so fascinating is the study that new members are constantly 

 received. 



With the increase in the number of readers who were not 

 members of the Fern Chapter, the scope of the magazine began to 

 broaden. The aim of the editor has always been to make our 

 ferns familiar to the largest number, and much attention has been 

 given to such subjects as the haunts, habits, uses and folk-lore 

 of ferns as well as to directions for identifying or recognizing our 

 native species. In this way a well informed and constantly en- 

 larging audience has been provided for the more technical pub- 

 lications of fern students. At the same time the necessity for a 

 more exact knowledge of the ferns was not lost sight of. The 

 study of the habitats and distribution of ferns and the com- 

 parative study of different species, has steadily been advocated, 

 resulting in the extension of the known range of many ferns, the 

 finding of numerous new species, varieties and forms, and the ad- 

 dition of a great number of new facts to our knowledge of the 

 ferns. This is particularly true of the fern allies, which ten years 

 ago were practically unknown to any save a few expert botanists, 

 but which now are familiar to most students of the ferns. The 



