Yesterday a thing long desired finally happened: I acquired a copy of V. Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran. It’s the 1990 edition with an introduction by her son Nigel Nicolson – I recommend this edition for this introduction in particular because it gives good background information and gives answers to some questions which the attentive reader will no doubt want to ask. When I finally acquire a book I’ve long wanted, I pounce on it. Last night I skimmed through the text, starting from the back and working towards the front as is my style. I was searching for the passages where she describes seeing Fritillaria imperiialis in the wild. I quickly found that, but I also found something which left me puzzled. Here’s what she wrote: “The yellow squills are everywhere, very strongly scented.” What in the world could these have been? Was “squill” a lapsus calami for “narcissus”, as in Narcissus tazetta? Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/