Dear Mary and all, First an introduction to myself. My name is Paul Cumbleton and I live in Berkshire, U.K. which is roughly Zone 8. I only recently discovered the Pacific Bulb Society on the web and am very impressed with the amount of really excellent information and help available. I have the good fortune of working for the Royal Horticultural Society at the famous Wisley Garden in Surrey, U.K. I have worked here for 3 years and I am the Senior Supervisor for the Rock Garden and alpine display houses. We grow a very large range of bulbs both in pots and out on the rock garden. I guess there must be around 3000 pots of bulbs, with particulalry strong showings of Narcissus, Crocus, Fritillaria and Galanthus but also a good selection of Oxalis, many of the "blue bulbs" such as Scillas etc, Ornithogalum and other things such as Cyclamen and Corydalis to mention just a few. Two of the collections - Crocus and Galanthus- are National Collections under the NCCPG scheme. We also have a collection of various near-hardy bulbs, particularly from the South African flora. I also grow bulbs in pots under glass at home, particularly the winter growing South African types, as well as Fritillaria, Calochortus and others. My other special interest is those most attractive little orchids, the Pleiones and for those who would like to know more about those you may like to visit my website at http://www.pleione.info/. Anyway, introductions over, I was looking at your Massonia pics and I think you are likely to be correct in thinking that the 'mystery' one is M. echinata. It looks identical to plants I have which are labelled echinata and which originated from seed from Gordon Summerfield. However, it is impossible to be certain from photos - examining and measuring the structure of the flowers is the only way to be sure, and as you have noted this is not easy on such small flowers! I mentioned your query to Terry Smale, a well known authority here on South African bulbs. He says he has a key to Massonia, so if you want to go down the route of keying out I could ask him for a copy to send to you. Co-incidentally, about a month ago I tipped out a pot of seedlings labelled Massonia pustulata which had been sown by one of my colleagues a year or two ago. On the back of the label it said "from Mary Sue Ittner"! Now I know who this refers to! In the light of your posting, it will be interesting to see what these turn out to be once they get to flowering size. Paul Cumbleton Berkshire, U.K. Zone 8 (becoming 9 with climate change!)