To write a handbook of methods is surely to invite criticism, as has already been said several times. On the other hand, there is a great need for methodological manuals in all fields of science. It was therefore decided to compile this book, written in good faith to help scientists, teachers and students who will, it is hoped, use it and judge it good. To be useful to the reader, such a manual must provide a broad review of the methods available and describe them in sufficient detail to permit preliminary selection and judgement. It has to give - at least for selected methods - a suffi ciently detailed description of the equipment and procedure as to be to some extent self-contained. It must assume a critical standpoint as regards the theoretical basis of the methods, the significance of results, and their errors and limitations. It must also furnish examples, pertinent numerical tables, and very complete references. All this and much more is expected of a good manual of methods."

The tenth volume of Water-in-Plants Bibl iography includes papers in al I fields of plant water relations research which appeared during the year 1984 - from theoreti cal considerations about the state of water in cel Is and its membrane transport to drought resistance of plants or physiological significance of irrigation. In addition to papers devoted entirely to plant water relations, papers on other topics are in cluded if they contain data on plant hydration level, water vapour efflux, rate of water uptake or water transport, etc., or if they contain valuable methodological in formation (measurement of selected microclimatic factors, soi I moisture etc.). We have tried to cover fully the relevant papers which have been publ ished in important scientific periodicals and books. Articles appeared in local journals, mimeographed booklets, abstracts of thesis and of symposia contributions, etc., were chosen mostly from reprints received directly from authors. The courtesy of those is highly appreciated. The manuscript is usually prepared in May and June of the year fol lowing the year which it covers. Unfortunately some reprints come later and thus the respective references appear in the fol lowing volume, with one year delay. To maximize the value of the bibl iography the references are arranged alphabetic ally according to the authors' names, and each volume is provided with three indexes."

The ninth volume of Water-in-Plants Bibi iography includes papers in al I fields of plant water relations research which appeared during the year 1983. - from theoreti cal considerations about the state of water in cel 15 and its membrane transport to drought resistance of plants or physiological significance of irrigation. In addition to papers devoted entirely to plant water relations, papers on other topics are in cluded if they contain data on plant hydration level, water vapour efflux, rate of water uptake or water transport, etc., or if they contain valuable methodological in formation (measurement of selected microclimatic factors, soi I moisture etc. l. We have tried to cover ful Iy the relevant papers which have been publ ished in important scientific periodicals and books. Articles appeared in local journals, mimeographed booklets, abstracts of thesis and of symposia contributions, etc., were chosen mostly from reprints received directly from authors. The courtesy of those is highly appreciated. The manuscript is usual Iy prepared in May and June of the year fol lowing the year which it covers. Unfortunately some reprints come later and thus the respective references appear in the fol lowing volume, with one year delay. To maximize the value of the bibi iography the references are arranged alphabetic al Iy according to the authors' names, and each volume is provided with three indexes."

The seventh volume of Water-in-Plants Bibl iography includes papers in al I fields of plant water relations research which appeared during the year 1981 - from theoreti- cal considerations about the state of water in cel Is and its membrane transport to drought resistance of plants or physiological significance of irrigation. In addition to papers devoted entirely to plant water relations, papers on other topics are in- cluded if they contain data on plant hydration level, water vapour efflux, rate of water uptake or water transport, etc., or if they contain valuable methodological in- formation (measurement of selected microcl imatic factors, soi I moisture etc.). We have tried to cover fully the relevant papers which have been publ ished in the most important scientific periodicals and books. Articles appeared in local jour- nals, mimeographed booklets, abstracts of thesis and of symposia contributions, etc., were chosen mostly from reprints received directly from authors. The courtesy of those authors who have already suppl ied us with reprints and I ists of their publ ica- tions is highly appreciated. The manuscript is usually prepared in May and June of the year fol lowing the year which it covers. Unfortunately some reprints come later and thus the respective references appear in the fol lowing volume, with one year de- lay. To maximize the value of the bib I iography the references are arranged alphabetic- ally according to the authors' names, and each volume is provided with three indexes.

The sixth volume of Water-in-Plants Bibl iography includes papers in all fields of plant wa-rer relations research which appeared during the year 1980 - from theore- tical considerations about the state of water in cells and its membl"ane transport to drought resistance of plants or physiological significance of irrigation. In addition to papers devoted entirely to plant water I"elations, papers on other topics are included if they contain data on plant hydration level, water vapour efflux, ra- te of water uptake or \'later transport, etc., or if they contain valuable methodolo- gical informati-on (measurement of selected microcl imatic factors, soi I nx:>isture, etc. ). We have tried to cover fully the relevant papers whi ch have been publ ished in the rTDst important scienti fie periodicals and books. Articles appeared in local journals, mirreographed booklets, abstracts of thesis and of symposia contributions, etc., were chosen rTDstly from reprints received directly from authors. The courtesy of those authors who have already supplied us with reprints and lists of their - bl ications is highly appreciated. The manuscript is usually prepared in ~1ay and June of the year 10110l,ing the year which it covers. Unfortunataly some reprints come later and thus the respective references appear in the following vol ume, with one year delay. To maximize the value of the bibliography the references are alTanged alphabeti- cally according to the authors' names, and each volume is provided "ith three indexes.

The third volume of Water-in-Plants Bibl iography includes papers in al I fields of plant water relations research which appeared during the year 1977 - from theore tical considerations about the state of water in cel Is and its membrane transport to drought resistance of plants or physiological significance of irrigation. In addition to papers devoted entirely to plant water relations, papers on other topics are included if they contain data on plant hydration level, water vapour efflux, rate. of water uptake or water transport, etc., or if they contain valuable methodological information (measurement of selected microclimatic factors, soi I moisture, etc. l. We have tried to cover fully the relevant papers which have appeared in the important scientific periodicals and books. Articles published in local journals, mimeographed booklets, abstracts of thesis and of symposia contributions, etc., were chosen mostly from reprints received directly from authors. The courtesy of those authors who have already supplied us with reprints and lists of their publ ications is highly appreciated. The manuscript is usually prepared in May and June of the year fol lowing the year which it covers. Unfortunately some reprints come later and thus the respective references appear in the fol lowing volume, with one year delay. To maximize the value of the bibliography the references are arranged alphabe tical Iy according to the authors' names, and each volume is provided with three in dexes. The authors' index contains al I names of authors, co-authors and editors."

From the point of view of individual consumer there are too many scientific papers being produced and published every year, too many to be looked up in the tremendous and steadi Iy increasing number and volume of scientific periodicals and proceedings from allover the world. This is not only the result of the "publish or perish" law, but also - let us hope mainly - the result of the increasing amount of true scientific information discovered. Even in a single scientific field too many papers are to be preselected according to the individual interest and to be looked through in order to see what they are reporting on. [And of course they are too many in these preselected to be read and studied in detai I. At the present nobody wi I I help us with this last link of what is called the information chain. But let us not speak about this lamentable point now. l Some tools are already wei I known and have been used to master more easily the overwhelming flood of scientific production as far as the first selection of information is concerned. Bibl iographies covering specific fields are one of these tools. They extremely faci I itate the preselection and when carefully indexed they give the user much more than a heap of selected titles. Such a periodiC bibliography in the field of plant-water relations is sti I I lacking.