The present study brings together research papers contributed by thirty selected Indian botanists who are specialists in the chosen field of study and who participated in different symposia or focal theme lectures organised during the congress. They reflect the present and the future trends in researches in plant sciences in India and are an authentic indication of what the state of art at present is. Professor Bir''s presidential address, reproduced here in an abridged form, is not only provocative but is sufficiently broad-based to be of interest to the plant scientists the world over.