Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- Part I Introduction -- 1 Drying Without Dying -- Part II Methodology -- 2 Methods for the Study of Water Relations Under Desiccation Stress -- 3 Experimental Aspects of Drying and Recovery -- 4 Biochemical and Biophysical Methods for Quantifying Desiccation Phenomena in Seeds and Vegetative Tissues -- Part III Biology of Dehydration -- 5 Desiccation Sensitivity in Orthodox and Recalcitrant Seeds in Relation to Development -- 6 Pollen and Spores: Desiccation Tolerance in Pollen and the Spores of Lower Plants and Fungi -- 7 Vegetative Tissues: Bryophytes, Vascular Resurrection Plants and Vegetative Propagules -- 8 Systematic and Evolutionary Aspects of Desiccation Tolerance in Seeds -- Part IV Mechanisms of Damage and Tolerance -- 9 Desiccation Stress and Damage -- 10 Biochemistry and Biophysics of Tolerance Systems -- 11 Molecular Genetics of Desiccation and Tolerant Systems -- 12 Rehydration of Dried Systems: Membranes and the Nuclear Genome -- Part V Retrospect and Prospect -- 13 Damage and Tolerance in Retrospect and Prospect -- Glossary -- Taxonomic Index -- Subject Index.