It was a compliment to me to be asked to prepare the fourth edition of Westcott's Plant Disease Handbook, and the decision to accept the respon sibility for the fourth edition, the fifth edition, and now the sixth edition was not taken lightly. The task has been a formidable one. I have always had great respect professionally for Dr. Cynthia Westcott. That respect has grown considerably with the completion of the three editions. I now fully realize the tremendous amount of effort expended by Dr. Westcott in de veloping the Handbook. A book such as this is never finished, since one is never sure that everything has been included that should be. I would quote and endorse the words of Dr. Westcott in her preface to the first edition: "It is easy enough to start a book on plant disease. It is impossible to finish it. . . " This revision of the Handbook retains the same general format contained in the previous editions. The chemieals and pesticides regulations have been updated; major taxonomie changes have been made in the bacteria, fungi, nematodes and viruses; the changing pieture in diseases caused by viruses and/ or viruslike agents have been described. New host plants have been added, and many recently reported diseases as weIl as previously known diseases listed now on new hosts have been included.

Westcott’s Plant Disease Handbook, 7th Edition, should be useful to anyone with a keen interest in gardening. The seventh edition uses the traditional convenient format of previous editions providing easy access to essential information quickly with special dictionary-type entries on plant hosts and on symptoms. It provides useful cross references, indexes, illustrative plates of 34 key diseases, and 40 black and white illustrations of other diseases. New and updated material includes: significant taxonomic changes in fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes, and recently discovered diseases and new hosts for previously known plant-pathogens.

Set includes revised editions of some issues.

It was a compliment to me to be asked to prepare the fourth edition of Westcott's Plant Disease Handbook, and the decision to accept the responsi bility for the fourth edition and now the fifth edition was not taken lightly. The task has been a formidable one. I have always had a great respect professionally for Dr. Cynthia Westcott. That respect has grown considerably with the completion of the two editions. I now fully realize the tremendous amount of effort expended by Dr. Westcott in developing the Handbook. A book such as this is never finished, since one is never sure that everything has been included that should be. I would quote and endorse the words of Dr. Westcott in her preface to the first edition: "It is easy enough to start a book on plant disease. It is impossible to finish it. " This revision of the Handbook retains the same general format contained in the previous editions. The chemicals and pesticides regulations have been updated; a few taxonomic changes have been made in the bacteria, fungi, and mistletoes; the changing picture in diseases caused by viruses and/or viruslike agents has been described. A few new host plants have been added, and many recently reported diseases as well as previously known diseases listed now on new hosts have been included. In addition, photographs have been replaced where possible, and the color photograph section has been retained.

The Handbook of Air Toxics compiles, defines, and clarifies several methods and concepts of airborne toxic substances found in the environment. This comprehensive reference helps regulators, consultants, and other environmental professionals meet the challenges of sampling and analysis, emissions reductions, and health and safety issues related to human exposure. It is an important reference addressing the ongoing concern about the consequences of air pollution, and the implementation and modification of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air Act. Some of the methods described in the Handbook of Air Toxics include fluorescence, thermal desorption, selected ion monitoring, ion chromatography, light microscopy, specific electrode analysis, titration, colorimetry, atomic absorption, and spectrophotometry. It also covers the use of isokinetic sampling trains, midget impingers, carbon molecular sieves, and sampling canisters in the analysis of air toxics. The Handbook also contains recommendations from the EPA for analytical methods for those air toxics where methods do not already exist and provides advance information on future method development by the EPA.