The first edition of van der Fiji’s “Principles” was published in 1969. The fact that a second edition has become necessary so shortly after the first shows that the book fills a need. Virtually nothing of the kind has appeared since Ridley’s famous “Dispersal of Plants’ (1930). This volume is still a mine of factual information but does not formulate general principles which van der Fiji’s book aims to do. Little has been changed in the new edition, some chapters have been extended to take up the latest literature. The list of references has consequently raised from 201 in the first to 261 in the second edition. Dispersal biology has always been subject to (often justified) suspicion by students in other fields of botany. Experiments in this field are mostly time consuming, and difficult to carry out. I could not agree more with the author when he says (p. 4): “... dispersal and its attendant phenomena require much more study”. It is van der Fiji’s merit that he has stepped from behind the writing desk and off the “trodden path of temperate ecology” (p. 2) and has produced a highly original work that has had ample benefit from the author’s nearly 30 years of tropical (Indonesia) experience.