Book excerpt: This Book was written to serve those interested in seed pathology. It is designed to serve as a textbook as well as a reference book for students, teachers, and researchers, and for seed health testing, seed production, and plant quarantine personnel. It is to be used as a guide to the literature. Much of the illustrative material has come from the authors' files used for teaching or from their own research. Teachers will want to supplement this book with examples from their own experience and research ot with information and data from other seed pathology programs. The authors hope that this book, in addition to being of value to seed and plant pathologists, will be useful to agriculturalists interested in crop production. It was written in part to stimulate research in seed pathology and its importance to the role of seedborne inoculum in the epidemiology and control of plant diseases.