EDITORIAL. 



At last the long-expected index to the first ten volumes of 

 The Fern Bulletin has been printed and is now ready for distri- 

 bution. Its appearance calls our attention anew to the vast 

 progress made in fern study during the decade that began in 

 1893. Much of this progress is directly traceable to the efforts 

 of the Fern Chapter, one of the largest and foremost of the 

 botanical societies in America, and the only one that does not 

 depend upon regular meetings of the members to keep up an 

 interest in its work; but much is due also, we take the liberty 

 of thinking, to the encouragement to fern students afforded by 

 The Fern Bulletin. It was most appropriate, then, that Mr. 

 Gilbert should select the ten-year index of this journal as a 

 fitting piece of work to signalize the completion of ten years 

 of successful study by the Chapter. In addition to its useful- 

 ness as an index to this journal, the publication may be con- 

 sidered an epitome of what has engrossed the attention of fern 

 students during the time covered by it. More than five hundred 

 signed articles are listed, and in the species index no less than 

 two thousand references to species are given, notwithstanding 

 the fact that not a single reference has been made to mere 

 specific names. The name of a fern may occur time after time in 

 the magazine, but unless something definite has been said about 

 the plant its name has been omitted from the index, thus saving 

 the unnecessary labor of tracing mere names. 



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A look through the list of contributors shows that one 

 hundred and eight persons furnished the matter for the first 

 ten volumes. That there should be more than a hundred 

 students sufficiently interested in ferns to write concerning them 

 is itself remarkable, considering the nature of the requirements 

 for such work. Of these writers few are credited with but a 

 single article, while in some cases individual writers have con- 

 tributed forty or more. The transitory interest taken in the 

 subject of ferns is shown by the fact that several of the 

 writers are no longer subscribers for The Fern Bulletin, nor 

 known for their interest in ferns. Ten years, however, is a 



