H. F. LINSKENS and J. HESLOP-HARRISON The chapters of this volume deal
with intercellular interaction phenomena in plants. Collectively they
provide a broad conspectus of a highly active, if greatly fragmented,
research field. Certain limitations have been imposed on the subject
matter, the most impor- tant being the exclusion of long-range
interactions within the plant body. It is true that pervasive hormonal
control systems cannot readily be demarcated from controls mediated by
pheromones or information-carrying molecules with more limited spheres
of action, but consideration is given in this volume to the main classes
of plant hormones and their functions only incidentally, since these are
treated adequately in other volumes of this Encyclopedia series (V - ume
9-11) and in numerous other texts and reviews. Similarly, certain other
effects, such as those associated with nutrients and ions, are not
considered in any detail. Furthermore, we have excluded intracellular
interactions, and also consideration of transport phenomena, which are
treated in detail in Vol- ume 3 of this Series. Other aspects of
inter-cellular interaction, such as cell surface phenomena and
implications of lectin-carbohydrate interactions, and plant-virus
inter-relationships, are treated in other sections of this Encyclopedia
(Volumes 13B and 14B, respectively). In the volume on physiological
plant pathology (Volume 4 of this series) special attention has been
given to host- pathogen interaction. These aspects of our subject will
therefore be excluded in the present treatise.
