Dear Alpine-L and PBS friends; A couple months ago the Alpine-L email list started an Alpine Topic of the Week (ATOW) modeled after the Pacific Bulb Society (PBS) Topic of the Week (TOW) with the help of Mary Sue Ittner and others. After a month's break to survey and redefine the project, ATOW begins anew on February 1 with a new ATOW every 10 days (Feb 10, Feb 20 etc.). The topics for February are all related to spring bulbs. Becuase of these topics and in thanks to PBS, the two groups are presenting identical introductions by enthusiastic experts. Following this introduction is information on how to view the messages from both lists and how to join each list should you wish to know more. Mary Sue (for Pacific Bulb Society) and I (Jim Waddick for Alpine-L) expect each list to operate as usual and that each discussion will move in different directions as appropriate to their own interests. The TOW/ATOW topics for February will be Galanthus (Feb 1), Smaller Narcissus (Feb 10) and Smaller Tulipa (Feb 20). In March each group's topics will go their own way. We remind all that the specific topics do not exclude any other discussion and that other questions, topics and requests may continue without interruption. Official topics may extend well beyond their announced period of ten days and discussions need not stop on any calendar date. We hope you will enjoy the new Alpine (ATOW) and the combined PBS February discussions. Please give feed back to Mary Sue Ittner of PBS or any of the Alpine-L moderators (Paige, Sasha, Harry, Jim) Mary Sue Ittner <msittner at mcn.org> Harry Dewey <HTD10 at Columbia.edu> Sasha Borkovec <borkovec at erols.com> Paige Woodward <paige at hillkeep.ca> Jim Waddick <jwaddick at kc.rr.com> Thanks from Mary Sue and Jim with help from Paige, Sasha and Harry About PBS Archives and membership: The pbs list archives are found at: http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/ Search the February 2004 archives by subject. I think that will be: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/… This has not yet been created yet, but as of January 2004 the PBS archives have a number of rousing contributions on Galanthus that Alpine-l members who are not pbs list members may find interesting. Subscribe at: http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php and scroll down to the section on subscribing. Information about the previous pbs Topics of the week can be found on our pbs wiki: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… About Alpine-L archives and membership: Anyone may join Alpine-L or view/search its archives at http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/alpine-l.html