EDITORIAL 



This number of the magazine is the first one issued since 

 a considerable number of new names have been added to our 

 hsts as a result of a campaign for subscribers, and it seems 

 fitting that we take this opportunity to make a few statements 

 by way of introduction. We may begin, then, by saying that 

 this is the only botanical magazine in North America that is 

 not subsidized by some botanical club or institution. Its motto 

 has ever been a paraphrase of that somewdiat inelegant though 

 expressive command ''Root hog or die," So' far it has shown 

 a commendable disposition to root. The editor, like the editors 

 of all other botanical publications, whatsoever, earns his salary 

 in other fields and runs the magazine for his own amusement, 

 though it is customary to throw some bluff about it and to 

 intimate that his hours of profitless labor are spent ''for the 

 good of the cause" or "because of his devotion to botanical 

 science." In no' sense, however, does he consider this his own 

 private publication. He expects his subscribers, readers, and 

 friends (the terms are not always synonymous) to supply 

 sufficient matter to fill it and when they neglect this golden 

 opportunity, as they so frequently do, he has to do it himself. 

 Often he waits so long to see what his contributors will do, that 

 he gets hopelessly behind, as in the present instance. Such 

 delays , though mildly irritating, do not much disturb the old 

 subscribers who know from past experience that every number 

 will appear sooner or later and reason that the delay is probably 

 more their own fault than it is the editor's. The magazine is 

 always decidedly in need of the right kind of articles. If we 



