THE FAD AS A FACTOR IN BOTANICAL PUBLICATION.

IF, as Pope and many others have asserted, "the publish, are influenced by what others are observing, proper study of mankind is man," botanists may occa-publishing and talking about. sionally study botanists and no apology is needed for In the work of the Plant Disease Survey we deal asking this botanical society to direct its attention to constantly with observations made by others, and in one of the manifestations of botanical psychology. It an attempt to study the relative incidence of disease is obvious that all we know about plants comes to us at different periods it becomes of first importance to through the medium of the botanical mind, and in discover what particular diseases were in fashion and studying the botanical publications of any period, it thus most likely to be noticed at any given time. It is important to know what botanists were thinking was, then, this practical necessity which led me to about at that time. For, much as we may dislike the spend a good deal of time during the past year in re-idea, we must admit that the conclusions which in-viewing American botanical literature. Some of the vestigators draw from their observations, perhaps incidental results of this study I wish to discuss to-even the observations themselves, or at least the kind night. To avoid wearying you beyond endurance I of observations they are most likely to make and to have confined the statistical portion of this paper to