found some older student willing to give names to even 

 the common things they sent him. 



It would be unprofitable to repeat here various other 

 facts that have arisen in connection with our magazine. 

 They have for the most part been chronicled in our re- 

 view of a decade of fern study, published in the tenth 

 volume. Mention may be made, however, of the im- 

 petus which has been given to the study of the fern 

 allies. In the early days, fern students seldom paid any 

 attention to them ; the early fern lists did not include 

 them, and the first books did not even mention them. 

 Now T practically everyone interested in ferns is inter- 

 ested in the allies as well. To this magazine must also 

 go part of the credit for the present activity in the study 

 of mosses, for The Bryologist, now a strong independent 

 journal, is a child of The Fern Bulletin, and for two 

 years was published as part of it. That the ferns them- 

 selves have also gained by the spread of fern study may 

 be seen from the fact that fifteen years ago the best list 

 of ferns contained less than 250 names, while the latest 

 contains more than double that number. 



In the fifteen years of publication, this magazine has 

 made several unique records. Starting with the field 

 full of botanical publications, it has continued on its way 

 unaided, until it is the third oldest of the strictly botan- 

 ical publications in America. What this means in the 

 way of good hard work only editors of similar publica- 

 tions can appreciate. This magazine is, so far as we 

 are aware, the only one that for its entire existence has 

 been in charge of a single editor and the only one that 

 has not been subsidized in one way or another by club 

 or society. It is also the only one that has never missed 

 a number, nor doubled up two numbers in one. And, 

 last but by no means least, it is the only publication of 

 its kind in the world. 



No one realizes better than the editor how much the 

 success of the magazine is due to the steady encourage- 



