Page:The Journal of Indian Botany, Volume III.djvu/59



Vol. III.

With this issue the Journal of Indian Botany enters on a new stage of its existence. Hitherto it has been the property, if one may use that word of a thing which only costs money, of a private individual, Mr. T. B. D. Bell, C.I.E,, late Chief Conservator of Porests, Bombay, who at its inception most generously offered to guarantee its expenses during the first two critical years of its life, and followed up his promise with cheques.

Partly under the stimulus of this Journal’s existence, a society of Indian Botanists was formed two years ago, under the leadership of Dr. W. Dudgeon of the Ewing Christian College, Allahabad, and when the young society felt it should have a periodical which the members might think of as their own, it was obviously more appropriate to acquire this one than to start another journal. They have therefore resolved, with the assistance of grants from most of the Indian Universities, to take over the editorial and financial responsibilities of this journal. The journal thus becomes The Official Organ, so far as a scientific journal may be called an official organ, of the Indian Botanical Society, and for this happy consummation the Society is indebted chiefly to the advocacy of its Pounder, Dr. Dudgeon.

In these days when government assistance is looked for in almost every public undertaking it is a source of very considerable gratification that a private person should have been found able and willing to stand the cost of a purely scientific journal during the first two years of its course, when expenses necessarily overtop receipts. It is well known that Mr. Bell has throughout his service not confined himself to the purely official work of a Porest Officer, but possesses probably unrivalled knowlege of certain branches of forest life ; and for his generous patronage of a purely botanical venture Botanists in India, and many over a wider range, will acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude.