EDITORIAL. 



Several times, lately, the editor has received communications 

 in which the writers were very evidently laboring under the de- 

 lusion that the subscription list of The Fern Bulletin consists 

 entirely of the 130 members of the Fern Chapter. The last letter of 

 this kind came from an editor with a prosperous and influential 

 paper of his own — a man who ought to know better — so it seems 

 to us about time to say something on this topic. We must no 

 longer be considered such philanthropists as to run a publication 

 for eleven years out of regard for fern students — fine people 

 though they be — nor must we be thought vain enough to publish 

 this journal for the gratification of seeing our name in print. 

 These of course may be subsidiary motives, but the main one is 

 that which actuates most other publishers and is represented by a 

 symbol which looks like a capital S rampant surcharged with two 

 perpendicular parallel lines. 



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The newspaper directories say that there are about 22.000 

 different newspapers and magazines published in America ; but 

 notwithstanding the fact that there are many people who subscribe 

 for several publications — and pay for them — three-fourths of these 

 22,000 periodicals do not have as many as a thousand subscribers 

 each — dead-heads and all. It is believed that no botanical publi- 

 cation in America issues more than a thousand copies. The Fern 

 Bulletin, therefore, takes pride in its issue of 750 copies and 

 considers that when publications devoted to the whole field of 

 botany cannot secure a subscription list of a thousand, its own 

 list of subscribers, every one of which is a fern student, offers a 

 fine chance to crow if the editor were not so modest. 



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It is surprising that the sapient scientist who can pick out a 

 new species at forty rods, should be so incapable of judging when 

 it comes to paper and type. He has actually had the hardihood to 

 speak of our pages as little, when there is not a prominent botan- 

 ical journal going that prints as many words to the page as we 

 do. It does seem that nothing but 12-point type and "scare 

 heads" will make an impression on some people. We begin to 



