FOREWORD AND PREFACE

The 21st International EUCARPIA Symposium with the general theme: Classical versus Molecular Breeding of Ornamentals was held at the Center of Life and Food Sciences of the Technical University of Munich in Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany, from 25 to 29 August 2003. It offered the opportunity for more than 200 delegates including scientists, students and professionals from public domains and private companies to exchange and discuss latest results and promissing approaches with the common concern to promote research and practical work in ornamental plant breeding.
A special event of the symposium was the evening lecture with the title The Patterns of Evolution and Ornamental Plant Breeding presented by Prof. W. Horn. This lecture together with a residual key note and full papers of 19 posters selected by the scientific committee are included in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.

Apart from this volume of Acta Horticulturae (number 651) the full papers of 4 key notes and 20 oral communications were already available at the symposium as a publication of Acta Horticulturae number 612.

G. Forkmann, April 2004
Symposium Convener

PREFACE

The papers contained in this volume of Acta Horticulturae report second part of the Proceedings of The 21st International Symposium on Classical versus Molecular Breeding of Ornamentals. Keynote speakers and authors of selected contributed oral and poster presentations were given the opportunity to submit a manuscript for publication.
These manuscripts were reviewed by the members of the Editorial Board. Only those papers judged suitable for publication following the authors consideration of reviewer suggestions appear in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.
The ISHS acknowledges and appreciates the contribution of all editors and reviewers. They have made a significant contribution to improving the quality of this publication.

The ISHS Board of Directors