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This has been a very busy year for our authors, reviewers, and editors. Thank you for waiting patiently for Volume 8. I think you will agree that it was worth the wait.Susan Barber has provided our historic article for 2008. Her thesis, "A Floristic Study of the Vascular Plants of the Gypsum Hills and Redbed Plains Area of Southwestern Oklahoma", is long overdue to be published . She researched the relationships between soil and vegetation types, just one of the underlying causes for the great biodiversity in Oklahoma. Her thorough work provides much more to the reader than the title reveals. It is a data-rich source for future botany research, and we know you'll enjoy it."Updated Flora of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge" by Keith Carter, Pablo Rodriguez, and Michael Dunn marks a new step in botanical research in Oklahoma. The Herbarium at Cameron University [CAMU] is now housing the Refuge's plant specimens, thanks to a grant and a lot of work by students, faculty, and staff at Cameron University. This is the first effort to update information regarding species at the Refuge since we published the late Paul Buck's 1977 checklist of the flora in 2002. Hopefully, it will spur interest in keeping the Refuge list up-to-date and bring recognition to a very deserving state institution's herbarium. We also hope that this will mark the beginning of a cooperative relationship between the Society and our state institutions' herbaria. One of the main goals of the Record is the initiation of new sources of data for biodiversity research in Oklahoma, and this paper is evidence that we are reaching that goal.It's been several years since we've published Clark Ovrebo's popular paper about lawn mushrooms. "Spring Mushrooms of Oklahoma" by Ovrebo and Nancy Weber is a new, enlightening and enjoyable article with colorful photos from which we can learn a great deal more about the intriguing kingdom of Fungi. We've also been waiting several years for "Ferns and Rare Ferns in Oklahoma" by Bruce Smith. It's finally here with photos to help identify them. Hopefully, a checklist of Oklahoma ferns will be forthcoming.Finally, we have a Memorial to Paul Buck, long-time board member and promoter of the Society. Constance Murray has provided us with a look at what it was like to have a professional, as well as a personal relationship, with someone so many of us have known and respected, someone who had a tremendous impact on the study of botany and ecology in Oklahoma.