ON THE LUMINOSITY AND MASS FUNCTION IN NGC-2362

We study the luminosity function of part of the young Galactic cluster NGC 2362 obtained recently by Wilner & Lada [AJ, 102, 1050 (1991)], and conclude that it is consistent with a solar neighborhood mass function. This result disagrees with the conclusion drawn by Wilner and Lada that the NGC 2362 cluster is significantly deficient in low-mass stars, and therefore with their claim that they have found strong evidence that the initial mass function varies on scales of clusters. Wilner and Lada based their discussion on the Salpeter mass function and discussed the possibility that a halo of low-mass stars may account for the apparent deficit in the regions of NGC 2362 surveyed. We emphasize that the Salpeter mass function with a single power law index is not consistent with observations of low-mass stars in any known environment, and is inappropriate for comparison with data searching for possible variations of the low-mass initial mass function.