8 
THE PLANT WORLD. 
EDITORIAL. 
With the present issue the Plant World enters upon its 
eighth volume. During the seven years past, it has gradually 
but surely won for itself a place in botanical journalism, until 
now its name is familiar to all American botanists and to many 
lay workers, if we may be allowed a distinction which does not 
always carry with it a difference. This same issue, too, is the 
first under its new editorship, and accordingly it offers a fitting 
opportunity for the editor to indicate the principles which are to 
determine the character of the magazine. 
We have long entertained the belief that science is the property 
alike of non-professional and professional scientists. The form 
in which the results of scientific study are first made known is 
however such that only the specialist can appropriate them. For 
various reasons few of the rest of us can, by hook or by crook, 
make these results our own. If this be true, we may, we believe, 
accept as a corollary to the above statement, that it becomes the 
duty of those who know to let those who do not know into the 
secret. To do this is eminently worth while. We conceive that 
the readers of the Plant World want to know what those who 
cultivate that part of science known as botany are doing, and 
that they desire to be informed as to the development of botanical 
knowledge. It shall be the business of this magazine to represent 
the science of botany in this way. 
There are very many botanical periodicals, various in size, 
kind and language. We recall that, a few years ago, when 
seeking for a digest of an article published in Japan, we finally 
found the title in a well-known compendium, but with no ab¬ 
stract. Instead were the words, “In Japanisch geschrieben” * 
This sententious summary of the situation describes equally well, 
mutatis mutandis, the condition for almost every one interested, in 
botany who by fortune is removed from a large center. The 
literature, regarded simply as a mechanism, is inaccessible. If a 
single magazine is subscribed for, or two or three, only a very 
*“ Written in Japanese. 1 
