Diane Whitehead asked, They [Timber Press] also offer The Journals of Hipolito Ruiz: Spanish Botanist in Peru and Chile, 1777--1788 >Is anyone familiar with this book? Would it be useful for someone trying >to grow some of Flores and Watson seeds? No, it isn't useful for that purpose. The best source for species offered by the Watsons is the "AGS Encyclopaedia of Alpines," for which I think John Watson wrote most of the Andean entries. There are also several books published in Chile, particularly the "Flores silvestres" and "Flores altoandinas" series. I'm looking forward (I hope, having gone through an insane routine to pay for it) to receiving the new 2-volume set on Chilean wild plants "de valor ornamental," which presumably appeared early in December. It is so hard to get hold of these Chilean books that I wish the NARGS Book Service would carry them. However, they seem unwilling to offer books in languages other than English, even in a language as familiar to most North Americans as Spanish is. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA