Andrew wrote: "I am not sure what your reason was for asking the question about when theterm 'geophyte' was first used but I do know the answer that Merriam Webster provides: 'circa 1900'." As far as I know, Raunkiær wrote a treatise of plant morphology in about 1907 and used the word geophyte as a subclass of cryptophyte. It's early but may not be the first mention. Michael Interlaken, NY Zone 6 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/