Statistical Data regarding the Botanical Literature of 1930 with a general Discussion

1. The botanical literature of 1930 consists of 7216 papers with 113700 pages. This refers to 91 volumes of the “Handworterbuch der Naturwissenschaften”. Systematics c.a.. Phytopathology and Physiology take over % of the whole literature. On the whole there are about just as many illustrated papers as not illustrated ones. Especially Morphology and Anatomy, Cytology, next Genetics, are more frequently illustrated than the average. The number of pages per publication averages 15.7. However, illustrated papers average twice as many pages as not illustrated ones and papers with a summary in another language than the paper itself are about 1 % times as long as papers without such a summary. More than half of all papers are written in English, namely 51.5 %; next come German and French with 21.1 % resp. 11.1 %. Botanists, who have a reading knowledge of but English, German and French, cannot read 9.6 % of the whole literature at all and can read 6.7 % only in the form of a summary. 2. The efficiency of publication has been amply discussed. This led the writer to suggest that at the International Botanical Congress at Amsterdam in 1935 attempts will be made to increase the efficiency of publication. A number of points which may be subject to discussion, have been mentioned.