Introduction

Abstract

When people talk about plant culture, they usually mean the growing of plants in pots, frames, greenhouses or in the field. Plant culture is further subdivided into the disciplines of agriculture, horticulture, tropical agriculture, forestry, and plant breeding. In 1904 Hännig developed a new method of plant culture called embryo culture. He isolated (immature) embryos in vitro and obtained viable plantlets of several members of the Cruciferae Many types of culture have become popular since 1920, such as: in vitro sowing of orchid seeds, callus culture, organ culture etc. (see Chapter 3). After 1945 all these diverse types of culture were grouped together under the collective term plant tissue culture, an unlikely name for such a diverse group of cultures.