Jim McK. wondered about the growth and bloom patterns of Biarum. I grow a number of species of these (mostly) small aroids, and am amazed at the within-genus variation in times of flowering and leaf growth. Particular species do, however, seem to have about the same cycle each year. Last fall I got to see some in the wild and was enlightened about them in that they get much bigger than I thought they would. B. pyrami was especially huge. Yet it flowers here in a 6-inch pot. I'm going to give them more room and see how that affects them. I have a few B. davisii growing in the open garden, in a sand bed, but they have not flowered there; the winters may be too hard on them. At least the vultures haven't attacked them. Nor have they attacked Dracunculus vulgaris here. When it flowers, I always react by wondering where the dogs have left a dead mole. In the MEditerranean, where D. vulgaris is native, there are numerous species of vulture, but they must have learned to discriminate between the inedible plant and the edible carrion; the American turkey vulture (vernacular "buzzard," a usage condemned by British birders but presumably established early in the colonial period from some British dialect) has not evolved with this particular stinker and may get confused. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA