The propagation of plane waves in an anisotropic elastic medium possessing monoclinic symmetry is discussed. The expressions for the phase velocity ofqP andqSV waves propagating in the plane of elastic symmetry are obtained in terms of the direction cosines of the propagation vector. It is shown that, in general,qP waves are not longitudinal andqSV waves are not transverse. Pure longitudinal and pure transverse waves can propagate only in certain specific directions. Closed-form expressions for the reflection coefficients ofqP andqSV waves incident at the free surface of a homogeneous monoclinic elastic half-space are obtained. These expressions are used for studying numerically the variation of the reflection coefficients with the angle of incidence. The present analysis corrects some fundamental errors appearing in recent papers on the subject.