Since the new system of donation for supporting continuous publication of WIS was introduced from in 1996, many contributions have been send to the office, reaching Y 300,000 b 74 describers . This amount is about equivalent to the postage for 700 describers over 58 countries. Special thanks for their contribution. Please keep in mind that WIS is not commercial journal, which has been supported by this type of voluntary contribution for mutual research interest.

In the present volume, we have articles more than expected, and because of this, some of information were send for the following issues. Soon or later, we have to consider the increase of volume or frequency of publication. Also, the editorial board is considering to cope with information exchange through computer-network.

Here, I would like to cite a letter from Dr. R. Riley (without his permission, sorry for this)' " I write to say how much I admire the editorial work and the presentation of WIS. It now can be viewed as an entirely profession journal and correctly entitled as The International Journal for Wheat Genetics and Breeding but of course that is not so convenient a title as WIS. So I expect that there will be many old-stagers like me who will not be able to get out of the habit of referring to WIS!"

Editor: T.S.