First 3 paragraphs of Preface: In these days of intense activity, when hundreds of papers are being published in every field of botany in a steadily increasing number of periodicals and in a multitude of languages, no apology is needed for an attempt to summarize the existing state of our knowledge in any branch of the subject and to point out the future possibilities in it. Since the publication of Coulter and Chamberlain's "Morphology of Angiosperms" in 1903, no comprehensive account of this aspect of botany has appeared in the English language. The original impetus for writing this work resulted from a course of lectures which I gave on the subject in 1930 when I was teaching at the Agra College. Several colleagues and pupils then suggested that I should produce a book on the embryology of angiosperms. This suggestion was repeated by Professor G. Tischler of the University of Kiel, whom I visited in 1936. Teaching and administrative dutes and other difficulties made it impossible for me to carry on this work in India at the speed I should have liked. Soon after the war was over in 1945, therefore, I took the manuscript to the United States in order to revise it and put it in shape for publication. In a strict sense, embryology is confined to a study of the embryo, but most botanists also include under it the events which lead on to fertilization. I am in agreement with this wider comprehension of the subject and have therfore included in this volume not only an account of the embryo and endosperm, but also an account of the development of the male and female gametophytes and fertilization. To emphasize the recent trends of research in the subject, two chapters of a general nature have been added, one dealing with embryology in relation to taxonomy, and the other with experimental embryology. In the former, an attemt has been made to indicate the possibilities of the embryological method in the solution of problems of systematic botany. In the latter, emphasis has been placed on the contacts between embryology, cytology, genetics, and plant physiology.

For the last 40 years this book has served well the students of Botany, Agriculture and Forestry for their regular courses like BSc. (General and Hons) and MSc., as well as competitive examinations. It has stood the test of time due to the authors’ zeal to update it regularly with inputs from latest developments in the field. Since the last revision of the book, the methods used to study plant embryology have changed radically. Powerful modern biological techniques are now being applied to understand the developmental aspects and genetic and molecular bases of embryological processes. It has become possible to generate tissue specific mutants by T-DNA insertional mutagenesis, use of green fluorescent protein probes for live imaging of growing cells and tissues and to analyze gene expression in few-celled structures, such as early stages of embryo, and constituent cells of the male and female gametophytes. These techniques, combined with the development of high resolution confocal laser scanning microscopy, have provided non-invasive methods to view live processes, such as pollen tube growth in the pistil and double fertilization under in situ conditions. The book has been translated into Japanese and Korean languages. KEY FEATURES • Well established text with content rigorous enough for both UG and PG studies • Covers important topics like development and structure of male and female gametophytes, pollination, fertilization, sexual incompatibility, development of endosperm and embryo, polyembryony, apomixis and seed development • Describes embryology in relation to taxonomy and experimental and applied embryology Use of tables and figures to depict important data and information • Updated as per the new developments in the study of plant embryology

Thirty-four years have elapsed since the publication of the late Professor P. Maheshwari's text, An Introduction to the Embryology of Angiosperms, a work which for many years served as an invaluable guide for students and a rich source book for research workerso Various texts dealing with sections of the braad spectrum oftopics encompassed by Maheshwari in his book have appeared in the interim, but a compendious modem work dealing with the whole field has been lacking. This present volume splendidly meets the need, and it is altogether fitting that Professor B. M. lohri, long an associate and close colleague of Professor Maheshwari and himself a prolific contributor to the subject, should have undertaken the task of editing it. When Maheshwari wrote, it was stiIl feasible for one author to handIe the subject, but today even someone with his fine bread th of vision and depth of understanding could not, alone, do it justice. So the effort has to be a collaborative one; and Professor lohri's achievement has been to bring together a team of authoritative collaborators, assign them their responsibilities, and put them to work to produce a text as integrated in its treatment as the diversity of the subject would allow. The product vividly illustrates the advances that have been made in the study of angiosperm reproductive systems in the last 30 years, and the book is surely destined to become the new standard for student and researcher alike.

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