THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 79 
The case of the American Botanist finds a parallel in that of 
the Fern Bulletin for it, too, has in a measure, had to make a pub- 
lic for itself. Botanists there are in plenty, but botanists who ap- 
preciate the study of plants as living things are still as rare as fern 
students were ten years ago. It is not that the botanists are in- 
capable of taking an interest in such studies, but that they never 
have had the way opened for them to do so. It is the privilege of 
this journal to be a pioneer in the new field and to awaken an in- 
terest in the habits of the plants about our doors. Interest in col- 
lecting plants fails when there are no more rarities within reach ; 
species making must end when the last variant is tagged with a 
name; possibly wrangles about nomenclature will in time cease; 
but once one begins to see new beauties in species that are neither 
new nor rare, he is started in a line of work that will never pall 
upon him. This is the newer and better botany which we feel sure 
will ultimately surpass all others and we are building the Ameri- 
can Botanist along lines that conform tO' it. Just as fast as our 
following increases, the magazine will be enlarged and every 
reader who mentions the journal to a friend, helps on the move- 
ment. 
The much advertised "wooden wedding" number of the Plant 
World appeared without the promised portrait of the senior edi- 
tor. It is explained that it could not be prepared in time for that 
issue. Evidently he had been comparing the American Botan- 
ist with his own journal and could not thereafter work up the 
necessary "pleasant expression." 
BOOKS AND WRITERS. 
"Po'Stelsia" is not the name of a new breakfast food, however 
much it may sound like it. It is the title of the year book of the 
Minnesota Seaside Station and the initial volume is said to con- 
tain seven essays mostly relating to algae. The book is printed 
on Roxburgh laid paper and bound in maroon silk with gold em- 
bossed book-plate by Rosendahl and no doubt shows at every 
point how completely art has become the handmaid of science. 
The edition is limited to 250 copies at $3.25 each, and as no copies 
are to be sent for rieview, the poor editor who, like the country 
