My sole contribution to the Flora of Tropical East Africa has been to write the account of the Liliaceae - this sounds quite grand, but in fact the only representative is the alien Lilium formosanum! Nevertheless this warrants a 'fascicle' (individual portion of the work) of its own, and is available from RBG Kew for the sum of £12.90 (one folded sheet of A4 paper inside covers!). Please note that the author does not receive royalties. Anyway, in researching this species I came to the conclusion that var. pricei is probably not tenable, as there seems to be a continuum of stature in the wild, and that the minuscule things in cultivation under that name are probably the result of selections from selections brought back by William Price from 'Formosa' (Taiwan) in 1912. These would probably be best treated as L. formosanum Pricei Group in horticulture. Incidentally, William Price lived about a mile up the valley here and is remembered by some older residents: he accompanied H.J. Elwes of Colesbourne on his journey to Taiwan. He also collected a clone of Pleione formosana long-known as P. pricei, but now called P. formosana 'Oriental Grace'. The other thing that is very striking is that in wild/naturalised situations it is almost always single-flowered, whereas in cultivation it can be multi-flowered. I have not seen the JC Raulston stock (mentioned by Jim Waddick in starting this thread) in flower, but have seen its towering capsules in winter and thought it was magnificent even then. L. formosanum is in general not a great success in the UK, perhaps because of virus, but also I think it needs a hotter summer than we can provide (even in a good year). John Grimshaw Dr John M. Grimshaw Sycamore Cottage Colesbourne Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Tel. 01242 870567