A brief history of New Phytologist

'Nature does not go about painfully to prove that the existence of a new organism is absolutely indispensable – she throws it upon the world and leaves it to take its chance. If there is room for the newcomer , if it is well adapted to fill its place in the scheme of things, it survives. If not, it inevitably goes under and disappears ... Meanwhile the experiment seems worth making.' Natural selection has been kind to this 'new organism', which he nourished almost single handed for a further 30 years – it has survived for 100 years with significant evolution to its current strong presence. The proliferation of scientific journals that became such a feature of publications in the latter part of the past century began at a slower pace 100 yr earlier. One of the major differences between developments during the two periods was in the nature of the initiators, who, 100 years ago, were predominantly individuals, learned societies or other charities, compared more recently with commercial publishers. Another change was in the style of the subject matter – broad spectrum then, specialist later. The founding of The New Phyto-logist in 1902 followed relatively closely on the launch of the Annals of Botany in 1878. There was controversy both over the need for that new journal then and over its name (Wilson, 1978). Tansley, although he called his new journal the British Botanical Journal in his preliminary circular, actually named it after the more magazine-style Phytologist that had had a short life between 1842 and 1863 (Fig. 1; Box 1). The originally intended title appeared as a rider to that which has, perhaps surprisingly, persisted. Surprising because the Greek-derived 'phytology' for plant science never caught on as did the equivalent 'zoology' for animal science. Indeed, it largely only persists in the names for a range of other plant science journals, such as Phytochemistry and Phytopathology, and in some commercial organizations that involve plants, such as Phytera Inc. and Phyto-longevity Inc. Tansley's original concept was indeed of a magazine-style publication as 'a medium of easy communication and discussion between British botanists on all subjects connected with their branch of science, methods of teaching and research as well as purely scientific questions.' He also wished the journal to appeal to 'persons ... keenly interested in the progress of botany, but cut off from contact with the centres of botanical activity. …