Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/11

 THE

Vol. I. SEPTEMBER, 1919. No. 1.

EDITORIAL

This has been started to provide a means of publishing botanical work done in India, which would not naturally find a home in the existing botanical journals of this country, e.g., the Records of the Botanical Survey and the various publications of the Agricultural Departments. The need for something of this kind has long been felt and frequently expressed, for without doubt much good work has been done in India in branches other than Floristic or Agricultural Botany, which has too often been laid on one side for lack of facilities of publication. The present venture owes its inception in the first place to the enthusiasm of Mr. L. J. Sedgwick, F.L.S., a keen and prolific worker in systematic botany, who, however, is unable on account of his official work to undertake the editorship ; and in the second to Mr. T. E. D. Bell, C.I.E., who generously came forward with an offer to guarantee the expenses till the Journal should be so far established as to pay its way, or prove unwanted.

The chief object of the Journal will be the publication of original matter, and in order that any work may see the light without undue delay, the editor is prepared to issue the Journal monthly, provided of course that there is sufficient matter to go to press. At the same time he feels constrained to remind Indian Botanists that if they really want the Journal to live they must support it by sending to him the papers they would otherwise have sent elsewhere.

In addition to original papers we propose to publish abstracts and reviews and of papers which appear in other journals ; but since the editor cannot undertake to abstract all, even of those papers which come under his notice—and there must be many that do not — he will be glad of assistance in this. Several botanists have kindly undertaken to abstract papers, but more help is needed, and it is