I'd like to reopen a discussion about a couple of issues on these two plants, first, what is the greatest number of flowers that anyone has seen or has blooming on one stem of the L.squamigera? and H. occidentalis. Currently my squamigera have 5-6 flowers which seems fewer to me than iIve seen formerly (before I put a spade through the middle of the group). Last year I had a H. under name of occidentalis which had 11 flowers on it. (Literature indicated that the top number was 10). I thought I was lucky until the bulb did not survive the winter with only 3 days at 0 GF. which leads me to believe that what I had was something else (the bulb came from California from an unsophisticate so this is certainly a possibility). In all other respects it conformed to pictures and description (I know, slim data indeed with this group). What I have in mind for the Hymenocallis is to adduce some evidence that it will survive in Zone 5 because I believe that it could have survived in the Chicago area prior to the arrival of farms, because the leading edge of the glacierat the last ice edge was about 20 miles north of here. At this point it survives only in 7 of the southernmost counties in Illinois, and its extirpation could have been due to encroaching civilization rather than climate. Any data bearing on these two questions of number of flowers would be appreciated. Thanks