Every year at about this time I start to fret about the uncollected Veratrum seeds maturing rapidly around the world. With sincere apologies to those whom I have bored with this request in the past, can I repeat my plea that anyone who has access to wild populations of Veratrum or its sister genus Melanthium get in touch? I'm working hard on assembling a comprehensive collection of Veratrum species but am missing authentic material of the common North American species V. californicum and V. viride. I'd love to obtain V. insolitum and V. fimbriatum from California but I realise these two species are exceedingly rare. Still, if you don't ask... I have lots of bulbs - including many Crocosmia cvs, to pick up on Jim W's recent thread - and seeds to swap and would also happily reimburse anyone prepared to make a special seed collecting trip for any of these species. Tom