72 



NOTES AND COMMENT 



as many detailed data as are necessary to the establishment of his con- 

 clusions, and to give his paper subdivisions and summaries that will 

 make it quickly comprehensible, the plan will achieve great benefits. 



The publication of a paper in a series of monographs which are com- 

 pelled to pay their own way, serves as a strong deterrent against the 

 sending out of separates with the compliments of the author. Every 

 botanist may well ask himself whether he would not prefer, as against 

 our present system, to pay for each separate that he desires to own, and 

 at the same time to be relieved of the expense of sending separates of his 

 own papers to other men. The distributing of separates is an excellent 

 means of complimenting fellow-workers, and is suspected of being an 

 effective form of advertising. Perhaps a majority of the separates which 

 pass through the mails are preserved and found useful; we will at least 

 assume that they are preserved. Could not a saving be effected, how- 

 ever, in time, money, shelf room, and self-respect by making your fellow 

 workers purchase those of your separates that they wish to own, and by 

 purchasing theirs yourself? 



Dr. N. L. Britton, of the New York Botanical Garden, and Dr. J. N. 

 Rose, of the National Herbarium, are inaugurating an extensive study 

 of the Cactaceae under a special grant from the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washing-ton. Their work will embrace the tropical and South American 

 members of the family as well as those of Mexico, the West Indies 

 and the United States. A collection of living plants is being brought 

 together in Washington and New York which will rival in completeness 

 any collections previously formed. An artist is preparing colored illus- 

 trations of the species as they come into flower, and herbarium and 

 skeleton specimens are being preserved. The completed results of the 

 work vnl] be published in the form of an elaborately illustrated mono- 

 graph, which \\-ill replace Schumann's Monographia Cactacearum as 

 the authoritative treatment of this group. During the present year 

 Dr. Rose will carry on field work in connection with their project. 

 Their first expedition will visit the West Indies, including Porto Rico 

 and the Lesser Antilles, and perhaps the northern coast of South America. 



