A practical guide in 2 parts. Part I is a general section in 12 chapters, with many photographs and illustrations: Introduction; Nursery site selection; Nursery design and construction; Planning and record keeping; Seed handling techniques; Sowing, germination and pricking out; Growing plants in containers ('polypots'); General cultural techniques; Prevention and control of diseases and pests; Other methods of plant propagation (stumps, bare-root seedlings, large ball-rooted seedlings); Vegetative propagation; and Preparing plants for planting out. Part II is a compendium of information on a limited number of species (43). Various extremely important indigenous species (such as Shorea robusta, Schima wallichii) are not included because they do not need to be (and are not) grown in community forest nurseries (rather, their natural regeneration needs protecting). Other omissions and inclusions are more arbitrary, e.g. poplars (Populus) are included although they are of rather localized interest, while teak [Tectona grandis] and deodar [Cedrus deodara] are omitted as they and several other important species are of interest to only a limited number of community nurseries.