EDITORIAL. 
The present year seems to- have been a hard one for botanical 
publications. In addition to Meehans Monthly, the Junior Na- 
turalist and California Floriculturist have given up the ghost. 
While the subjects to which these journals are devoted maKC them 
in a certain sense rivals of The American Botanist we take no 
pleasure in the passing of the least of them, for each suspension 
is but another proof that in botanical fields the battles are sharp 
and the rewards few. A successful botanical publication is like- 
ly, for some time to come, to be catalogued with the rarest of rare 
species. 
Although there are still in existence a dozen or more publica- 
tions devoted to botany in its best sense, the latest reports of the 
newspaper directories do not credit a single one of them with a 
circulation of as many as a thousand copies. This is truly a poor 
showing for publications devoted to a science that is taught in 
nearly every High School in the land. One subscriber for every 
hundred thousand of population ! Is it at all surprising that an 
editor after doing his best for years tO' advance his chosen science 
should finally become disgusted at the small interest displayed 
and draw out of the race ? Another thing that adds to the botan- 
ical editor's chagrin is the fact that some of the horticultural and 
floricultural publications have most astonishing circulations. One 
magazine, in particular, issues more than three hundred and fifty 
thousand copies each month. If botanical journals were half as 
well supported the science would advance much faster than it 
does at present. 
The reader may ask how he is concerned in all this. At first 
glance, the matter may seem tO' be one in which editors and pub- 
lishers alone are interested; but it can readily be shown that it is 
of vital importance to every person interested in botany. A bot- 
anical journal that is not properly supported, will sooner or later 
be obliged to suspend, leaving the field to less worthy publications 
if it is occupied at all. No one doubts that the botanical publica- 
tion is of great value to the science; it gives in a single year more 
specialized information than can be obtained elsewhere for many 
