The third volume of The Himalayan Plants follows the same general pattern as the first and the second. The intention once again is to illustrate the diversity of morpho-logical, cytological and ecological features and to present monographs and revisions of various taxonomic groups that are concentrated in the Himalayan region. This volume contains the vegetation, the pollination ecology, the wood anatomy and the taxonomy.

We wish to express our sincere thanks to Dr. David E. Boufford, Harvard University, for his critical reading and correcting English of the manuscript.

The field researches were undertaken in the collaboration with Plant Research Divi-sion, Department of Plant Resources, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu. We wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Madhu Sudan Bista, Director General, who enabled us to carry out the joint field researches. We are indebted to Dr. Keshab R. Rajbhandari and Mr. Nabin Acharya of the same Department, for their kind help for our researches. We are also thankful to the local authorities in Nepal for their help during our field re-searches.

Our field researches were supported by Grant-in-Aid for International Scientific Re-search (Field Research) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Nos. 03041035 in 1991 and 1992, 06041043 in 1994 and 1995, and 09041143 in 1997 and 1998 to Mitsuo Suzuki, No. 02041088 in 1990 and 1991 to Mutsuhiko Minaki, Nos. 07041149 in 1995 and 08041160 in 1996 to Takuji Hoshino, No. 0741132 in 1995 and 1996 to Masayuki Mikage, and Nos. 03041029 in 1991, 04041038 in 1992 and 1993, 06041030 in 1994 and 1995, and 08041137 in 1996 to 1998 to H.O.

13 January 1999