EDITORIAL. 
That anyone is content to rest after merely learning the names 
of the flowers, is not much to his credit, and if after learning these 
names, he turns his attention to the petty differences between 
tweedledee and tweedledum that bother our namenclaturists, he 
will be in a scarcely more enviable position. The greatest and 
most enduring pleasures to be derived from an acquaintance with 
plants is, without question to be found in studying them as liv- 
ing things ; in observing their development from day to day, from 
the expanding leaf and unfolding flower through all the life of 
processes to the ripening seed. In fact this is the one phase of 
botany that increases in interest the longer we study it. There 
are many among us wise in the lore of plants but not one that 
knows all that may be known of even the commonest species. One 
needs no great library or extensive herbarium, for such studies. 
The woods and fields will be his work-shop or if bricks and mor- 
tar keep him from this the back-yard in the town, or the window 
ledge in the city will be large enough to contain the materials for 
his work. The American Botanist was founded for the en- 
couragement of studies of this kind, and all the matter that has 
gone into it has been selected with the idea of furnishing infor- 
mation of value of the student. In a journal of such character, 
it is manifestly impossible to publish all original matter, for no 
single publication can expect to "corner" the stock of interesting 
notes or bright ideas and we venture to assert that in thus giving 
a review of all other botanical publications, we have not only 
made two volumes that will remain of pertinent interest and value 
but two which will compare very favorably with much more pre- 
tentious magazines. 
Some time ago we promised that as soon as our circulation 
warranted the magazine would be increased in size. We now 
take pleasure in announcing that every number of Volume III . 
will contain twenty pages. How soon we shall again increase 
the size depends entirely upon our subscribers. Itach one is vir- 
