Achievements and Prospects in Pteridophytes

Contents: Preface. Professor S.P. Khullar--Biographic sketch. 1. Fern allies of Uttaranchal: enumeration and distribution/Y.P.S. Pangtey and L.M. Tiwari. 2. Pteridophytic Flora of Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, Part. I: A General account of Bilaspur District and 13 most common Pteridophytes/M.K. Seth and Sunil Kumar. 3. Phytogeography of Pteridophytic Flora of Satpura Hills (Central India): an over-view/S.M. Vasudeva. 4. Distribution and ethnobotanical notes on Pteridophytes growing in Hills of Jharkhand/Shobha Rani Singh, Binod Kumar and Ram Pravesh. 5. A list of doubtful species of Ferns from the North-Western Himalaya in Chandra's The Ferns of India/Y.P.S. Pangtey. 6. Reproductive biology of Homosporous Ferns: a review/S.S. Sharma. 7. Compartmentalization of the Fern Genome and the Gene Block Hypothesis Revisited/S.C. Verma. 8. VAM Associations in Cheilanthes Swartz (Sinopteridaceae)/I.B. Prasher and Anju Baghla. 9. Micropropagation of rare aquatic ferns/Harvinder K. Cheema. 10. Azolla: a floating fern to an excellent experimental model system/A. Sood, A.S. Ahluwalia and P.K. Singh. Index to genera and species. Author index.

From the Preface: "Pteridophytes; with an independent gametophyte and sporophyte; were probably the first of the land plants that originated on earth. With the passage of time these unique plants established and flourished on land and were once the dominating vegetation on earth. However, with the large scale change in climatic conditions, these plants unable to cope with the prevailing environment, started vanishing gradually. Pteridophytes; having enormous ornamental value, as tools of research in genetical and reproductive biology, for their role in forest productivity, need much more attention.

This volume contains ten research papers and reviews on various aspects of pteridophytes by eminent pteridologists of the country not only highlighting the achievements, but also pointing out the areas where lot of work needs to be done."