EDITORIAL. 
With this issue we mail bills to all who are in arrears for sub- 
scriptions to the American Botanist, and as the present volume 
is nearing completion, we also print in the advertising pages, a 
list of various books and magazines, which readers can obtain at 
greatly reduced prices in connection with a subscription to this 
journal for the coming year. This is the season when the flov/er- 
lover begins selecting his out-of-door books for the summer, and 
since he ought in any event to have this magazine, the only one in 
America that is printed for the flower-lover, he cannot do better 
than to order all together. The editor's absence in the South has 
prevented, in some degree, certain improvments intended for the 
journal, but these, including a series of illustrated articles, will be 
begim in the ncAV volume. As we have ncA'er failed to constantly 
improve our publications, we hope the beginning we have made 
with this one will incline all our present subscribers not only to re- 
new, but assist us in making the journal known to others. 
Palm Sunday in Xew Orleans, brings out an unusual crowd to 
the Catholic churches, especially in the quarter inhabited princi- 
pally by the French, Spanish and Italians. Everybody who can, 
goes to church with fresh green leaves to be blessed, in the firm be- 
lief that nothing but good luck will come if they are carried home 
and hung up in the rooms. At St. Louis' Cathedral there w^as a 
great throng, but bunches of bay leaves rather than palms seemed 
to be the proper thing to carry. Here and there were noted the 
fronds of a cycad ( Cycas rcvoliita) , but palms were not abundant. 
Outside the cathedral several individuals did a thriving business in 
articles to be blessed, made from the young leaves of the palmetto. 
These leaves make their appearance, folded up like a fan and if 
taken before the fan is spread yield twenty or more strips nearly 
an inch wide and two feet long of a bright yellowish white color. 
From these, ornamental baskets of various shapes are woven 
"while you wait;" trumpets that may be sounded are made by 
winding several strips in funnel shape, and numerous other trin- 
kets, showing considerable ingenuity in construction are to be had 
for a trifling sum. 
