The Botanical Journal, 1915–16
Another obscure journal, and another E.T. Heron publication. Hooray for E.T. Heron!
We have three copies of the Botanical Journal, ours from 1915 to 1916, a monthly which ran from (I reckon) 1914 and I understand had gone by 1918. So what we have here are quite special. The ‘official organ of the Royal Botanic Society of London’, this was one of their several efforts over the years at publishing a regular journal, all of which fizzled out. The RBS itself started in 1839 and had gardens in Regent’s Park in London, before winding up in 1932.
I’ve come to look on the publishers E.T. Heron as the patron saint of Publications That Don’t Stand A Chance. And so it was with Botanical Journal. Ours cost 3d, but an editorial suggests this was a greatly reduced cover price on the issues which came before. Since ours are wartime publications we can expect them to be thin (24 pages), but again, we learn that they were now in a ‘new form’ and ‘our waist has grown slimmer’. The editorial was news, reviews and articles of botanical interest, finishing off with very comprehensive meteorological readings. It’s almost all text with the occasional image.
Reliant, I expect, on subs from the Society to sustain it, its advertising was restricted to the covers and inside covers, and even here we find occasional blank space. Nor is there much variety. We find ad for shears, starting at 4s, so you’d look after those and keep them sharp. Then there are pump-action insect sprays and Abol insecticide. A curious ad is for Darlington’s ‘Auto-Shreds’, the ‘King of Fumigants’, in which a picture shows a lady lighting a fire in a greenhouse and, we hope, exiting pronto. Robert Green, ‘London’s popular florist’ has a regular slot.
