Stomata

Over the last decade enormous advances 10 our understandmg of the functionmg of "tomata have been made Today, the overall pattern of events 10 stomatal functloOlng IS generally under tood although some of the fmer details of the mechaOlsm remam to be eluCIdated However, the mechaOlsm whereby changmg CO levels wlthm a leaf control stom- 2 atal movements remam one of the biggest puzzles The excellent text PhYSlOlogy of Stomata, by Professors H Meldner and T A Mamfleld, I over 12 years old and mevltably sections of It are now outdated Although numerou flOe review, > on vanous aspects of stomata have been wntten 10 the meantime, none could be conSidered as complete, compact appraisals of the subject dnd thus to have super- seded the Meldner and Mansfield book Now IS therefore an appropnate time to review the statu of our knowledge about stomata This book encompas es all a pect of the subject except the phySICal processes mvolved 10 the exchange of gases between a leaf and ItS envI- ronment ThiS topIC IS dealt With very adequately 10 a vanety of other books and reVlew, and the subject matter, With mmor differences of opmlon, remams much the >ame today as It was perhaps 20 years ago A descnption of how to measure stomatal apertures and the use of porometers has been restncted to a fmal chapter whICh also deals with expenments which can be carned out by students Agam, there are