-85 - 



repeated search during the rest of the season failed to unearth even a single 

 plant. 



It is my good fortune, however, to find this summer on almost the identi- 

 cal spot a loose mat possibly a foot square. The weather so far this year 

 has been cold and rainy and the plants examined under the microscope July 

 23rd show abundant gemmae. See illustrations, etc., in Bryologist for Oc- 

 tober. 1901; also January, 1901, p. 12, and July, 1901, p. 50. There is evi- 

 dence of a number of fertile plants in the mat, and it is hoped these will 

 prove to be on the Bryum in which case a limited amount of material will be 

 available for distribution. A. M. S. 



A NOTE 



By Annie Morrill Smith. 



In company with other journals The Bryologist comes in for its share 

 of criticism without which it would be impossible to keep fully in touch with 

 its subscribers and thereby modify and adjust its policy from time to time. 

 The idea in starting this journal was to help a body of would-be students of 

 the mosses; their number was unknown but it was felt to be sufficient to 

 justify a beginning, so in January, 1898, a modest start was made with four 

 pages. Before the year was out its place was assured and its growth and 

 progress since then a matter of history. 



The Editors have from the first enjoyed the cooperation of the advanced 

 workers, as our pages testify, and when these friends counsel the printing of 

 more technical articles it is hard not to fill our limited space with matter be- 

 yond the range of the beginner. This problem is very clearly set forth by 

 Charles E. Bessey in a recent number of Science (July 25, 1902, No. 395, p. 

 157) and we are glad to record his endorsement of our policy. It is just be- 

 cause we have never been able to forget the ladder by whose help we 

 mounted the first hard rounds that we have kept to the original idea of help- 

 ing the beginner. We feel sure that the issues of the first four years of 

 The Bryologist constitute a very helpful handbook for those taking up the 

 study of the mosses, hepatics and lichens, and that this ground need not be 

 covered again by us. There still remains, however, a large gap between this 

 elementary work which we have done and the Manual of Lesquereux and 

 James. This was brought |home very forcibly to me the past two weeks. 

 During the exigencies of travel I was separated from my own copy of the 

 Manual and obliged to use the spotless one of a friend and I realized then 

 for the first time what a wealth of material exists only in such annoted 

 copies as a few own who have had exceptional opportunities to correct, make 

 additions, cross references and notes to the extent often of pages interleaved. 

 Many of these notes and additions have been given from time to time 

 'in our pages by the various authors, but we do need one or more books lead- 

 ing one up to the place where intelligent use of the larger works of reference 

 is possible. In the meantime The Bryologist will continue a certain 

 amount of elementary work, at the same time giving generous space to those 

 further advanced. 



