THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 99 
times its price. Therefore, it behooves every botanist and bot- 
anizer tO' stand by any that are worthy, supporting them not only 
by subscribing, but by speaking of them to others, by contribut- 
ing to their pages and in various other ways helping toward their 
advancement. An attractive botanical publication is as much a 
credit to its subscribers and contributors as it is to the one who 
edits it or the country in which it is published. 
Although the past has held very little of encouragement for 
the botanical publication the prospects for the furture are much 
better. The large number of nature books that have been issued 
in the past decade, are slowly but surely increasing the number of 
those who take an intelligent interest in plant and animal life. 
Some of these books have sold from twenty-five thousand to one 
hundred thousand copies each—figures which the average novel 
fails to reach in spite of the phenomenal sales of a few of the lead- 
ers. In the light of these facts it is not too' much to expect that 
the next few years will develop botanical magazines of from thirty 
two to sixty-four pages, with subscribers enough to- make their 
publication w^orth while. But such magazines will not develop 
unless properly supported. 
The gentle art of scientific criticism has received a new inter- 
pretation from a recent reviewer of a paper on the birches by Mr. 
M. L. Fernald. The critic, finding nothing wrong with the facts, 
still unwilling to agree with the author, pitches into his diction. 
Criticism of this kind, however, comes with bad grace from a cri- 
tic who is author of that famous phrase ''birds and animals." If 
birds are not animals, what are they? 
Referring to the note in a recent number of this magazine re- 
garding the color of the berries of the false Solomon's seal or 
wild spikenard {Smilicina racemosa) a correspondent writes: 
"For three successive late autumns I have made note of the fact 
that these berries lose their spots and become clear red when fully 
ripe and yet I did not dare say so." If plant-lovers generally 
knew how much is guessed at in the making of even our best 
manuals, they would doubtless study the plants in the field with 
greater diligence. It is no secret that the text books are founded 
