Rodger Whitlock wrote,I hope everyone will forgive me for being such a cynic, but I >wouldn't be surprised to read that this population [of Tecophilaea] has >already been >collected out of existence by unscrupulous nurserymen. > >It is to be hoped that the government of Chile mounts effective guard >over this precious treasure. This gives me a chance to quote one of John Watson's best lines (I'm quoting from memory, so this may not be utterly verbatim), to the effect that the assumed extinction of T. cyanocrocus was "more likely to have resulted from overgrazing than from spade-wielding peasants in the pay of villainous Dutchmen." The habitat of this plant has been subjected to cattle and goat grazing at a level utterly unsustainable in such an arid environment for more than three centuries, so that in many areas little remains but seriously spiny shrubs and unpalatable plants such as the cushion umbellifers. In fact, Chile has an active conservation community, although excluding local pastoralists from sensitive sites is very difficult for them. One result of this activism is extreme difficulty in getting permits to take native plant material out of Chile, including seeds. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon