This second and final part of volume seven of New Journal of Botany includes 12 research papers and one short note covering various aspects of the botany of north-western Europe. Orchids have been a significant focus of the journal since its inception and this issue continues the trend with papers by Richard Bateman and colleagues investigating the systematics of the genus Pseudorchis and reporting a new intergeneric hybrid between Dactylorhiza and Gymnadenia in Cornwall, and Joana Abreu and colleagues considering the constancy of tetraploidy among populations of Ophrys fusca and O. dyris in Portugal.
Contributions to the taxonomy and systematics of our flora come from Torbjorn Tyler, exploring an over-looked section of the genus Hieracium; John Richards and Declan Doogue reporting new records of Taraxacum from Ireland, including descriptions of four new species in section Celtica; and Alexis Fitzgerald and Trevor Hodkinson confirming the presence of Festuca ovina subsp. ovina in Ireland.
Other contributions cover plant ecology and phytogeography. Simon Smart and colleagues analyse changes in the abundance of common plants across Wales based on repeated quadrat surveys over a 38-year period, while Keith Kirby and Robert Thomas investigate the impacts of a management plan to restore a broadleaved wood in southern England. We also include detailed surveys of the flora of Fair Isle, a remote island in the Shetland archipelago; of the charophyte flora and ecology of some post-industrial water bodies in County Durham; and of the flore pleno form of Mossy Pearlwort Sagina procumbens. We have further records of seaborne endocarps from Declan Quigley and a morphometric study of the Centaurea nigra species complex in Hertfordshire, confirming suspicions of widespread introgression and offering a pragmatic solution to determining the identity of records. Plant Records and two book reviews complete this issue.
As announced in the previous issue, volume seven will, sadly, be the last volume of New Journal of Botany, and so this issue that combines parts 2 and 3 will be the last issue. The reasons for ending publication of the journal were summarised in my editorial to the last issue. I remain hugely grateful to Taylor & Francis for their support in attempts to make the journal viable in its present incarnation and thank them for their understanding in terminating the publication agreement.
BSBI is indebted to Richard Gornall for his role in the inception of New Journal of Botany and for steering it through its first five years as Editor-in-Chief; to Louise Marsh who as Editorial Assistant has provided the skills, diplomacy and discipline to guide manuscripts and authors through the non-trivial technical processes from initial submission to publication; and to our talented panels of editors and reviewers who have supported authors and ensured adherence to standards of scientific excellence.
BSBI is currently working on an alternative way of disseminating research of significance to documenting and understanding the systematics, ecology, evolution and dynamics of the British and Irish flora; details will be posted on the BSBI website as soon as possible.