The Biodiversity of African Plants

We have the pleasure to present to you the proceedings of the XIVth congress of the "Association pour l'Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d'Afrique Tropicale" (AETFAT). The XIVth AETFAT congress was held from 22 to 27 August 1994, at the Wageningen International Conference Centre in Wageningen, The Netherlands. The congress was attended by 215 participants, 104 of which came from 28 African countries. During the congress 46 papers and more than 100 posters were presented, the texts of most of which are presented in these Proceedings. The expenses of the congress were covered by grants from the Wageningen Agri- cultural University, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and others; see page XVI for a complete list. Funds for the participation of 55 members from Africa came from a number of sponsors, in particular from the Directorate General for International Cooperation, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation, the Tropenbos Foundation, and Shell Nederland. We express our sincerest thanks to all contributors. The convenors who organized the symposia, and edited the papers afterwards, are gratefully acknowledged.The editors also acknowledge the valuable help of J.J. Bos and A.J.M. Leeuwenberg, both with preparations in the Organizing Committee, as well as with ftnal editing. The printing was undertaken by Kluwer Academic Publish- ers, in collaboration with A.C. Plaizier.