Fritillaria affinis (which older books describe under its former name F. lanceolata) is probably the most widespread of the American Fritillaria species, and not surprisingly, one of the easiest to grow. It ranges from coastal habitats such as Stephen Munro described, to mid elevations in the Cascades and California mountains. California populations sometimes have fairly pale flowers, but mostly these fritillaries are green checkered in purple-brown, or even very dark. I find that it likes pretty good drainage, but not an arid situation, although in summer some populations experience considerable drought -- but remember that their bulbs are deep underground. For some years I've grown F. affinis 'Wayne Roderick', which is one of several triploid forms found along the Central California coast. Ed Rustvold of Berkeley gave me a form from Nicasio Reservoir, which is very stout but has flowers more like the typical ones. 'Wayne Roderick' has massive, deep purple flowers that are really square in outline. I also have a "dwarf" form grown from seed collected by Phyllis Gustafson in the Siskiyou Mountains, which flowers at only about 4 inches (10 cm) tall. I had a form from seed collected by the Robinettes near the southern limit of the species' range in California, which had chartreuse flowers, but I lost it in a very cold winter. The triploids are sterile but produce many "rice grain" offsets, and so they're widely distributed among growers. Seeds collected on Vancouver Island and sent to an exchange as F. camschatcensis proved to be a rather short form (8 inches/20 cm) of F. affinis. Seeds I collected on the lower slope of Mount Hood, near my home, produce stems about 12 inches/30 cm tall. This is one of a group of Pacific Coast fritillaries that includes F. recurva, F. micrantha, F. ojaiensis, F. eastwoodiae, and F. viridea. The natural hybrid of F. affinis and F. recurva is known as F. gentneri. I've grown seedlings from a cross of F. gentneri x F. eastwoodiae. The latter was sometimes thought to be a natural hybrid of recurva x micrantha, but it is found in some areas where neither of those grows. F. ojaienses is from southern California and has oddly shaped pale green flowers; F. viridea, also southern Californian, has tiny starry green flowers and is in bloom now, along with F. recurva. All of these are relatively tall plants which, as Stephen observed, tend to grow in scrub where the deer can't eat them. Recurva, gentneri, and eastwoodiae are popular because of their colorful flowers, which range from crimson to pale orange. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon