In reply to many inqniries we beg to ssy tbet no title« 

 pages of The Ame^^ican Botanist for the first tbree vol- 

 umes have yet been issued, but that th«y will be as soon 

 as the present rush of business is over, when copies wiO 

 be mailed to every subscriber. 



* 



It is not customary for The American Botanist to- 

 publish the commendatory letters it receives, but for once 

 we will suspend the rule long enough to quote as follows 

 from a recent communication : "I am very much obliged 

 to you for what you are sa^nng, now-a-days in the Bot- 

 anist in regard to the multiplication of species, I think 

 you are quite right in the February number,, pages 38 and 

 39, and trust that you will continue to talk in this way, 

 I think that the reaction is bound to come, and when it 

 does came, the fellows who are multiplying species so 

 rapidly will be quite ashamed of themselves ; at least they 

 ought to be." The writer of this is the head of the botan- 

 ical department of one of our prominent universities, and 

 himself the author of numerous valuable contributions to 

 botany „ It is scarcely necessary to say that such endorse- 

 ment is much appreciated. In this connection and explan- 

 atory of the species-making habit it may be interesting to 

 repeat what a prominent New York member of the radical 

 school said to the editor upon the subject. "You see," he 

 said, ''we have to claim more than we are entitled to, in 

 order to get what belongs to us when the reaction sets 

 in." Another botanist, an officer of one of our Eastern 

 Botanical Gardens, replied when questioned as to his 

 opinion regarding the validity of certain species of violets. 

 ''I cannot split violets with some of the others." When 

 we get beyond certain limits, species-making becomes a 

 mere matter of opinion, when, as in this case, scientists of 

 equal ability are unable to agree. 



