The formation of roots is in some respects one of the least fundamentally understood of all plant functions. Propagation by cuttings is the aspect that will occur first to most gardeners and horticulturists, and it is certainly the most useful application. But any observant traveller in the tropics can notice that some trees have the habit of forming roots in the air. Climbers like Cissus bear long fine strings of roots hanging down. Pandanus trees tend to have stout aerial roots issuing from the bases of the long branches, while the tangle of roots around the trunk of many of the Ficus...

This NATO Advanced Research Workshop held 25-30 September, 1988 at the Villa Gualino, Turin, Italy, was the first international meeting of its kind to be devoted solely to cell separation in plants. The partial or complete dissociation of one cell from another is an integral process of differentiation. Partial cell separations are basic physiological components of the overall programme of plant development. Complete cell separations are major events in the ripening of fruits, and the shedding of plant parts. Unscheduled cell separations commonly occur when tissues are subjected to pathogenic...

Books dealing with climatic change are commonplace, as are those concerned with effects of environmental stresses on plants. The present volume distinguishes itself from earlier publications by highlighting several interrelated environmental stresses that are changing in intensity as the climate warms in response to the accumulation of 'greenhouse' gases. The stresses examined at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop upon which this book is based include atmospheric pollutants, flooding and sub mergence, drought and cold. In future, successful farming or landscape management will ultimately...