Hello, I received few days ago a new plant list from Chen-Yi ,you too? J.Luc Although a number of interesting plants have entered cultivation in North America and elsewhere via Chen Yi's nursery, it is widely thought that some of the material is collected in the wild. I have heard people justify this with the argument that so many plants are endangered by wild collecting for Chinese herbalism that taking a few for horticulture is relatively benign. That doesn't seem like a valid argument to me. Moreover, most people who have received plants originating with Chen Yi have found that many of them are misidentified, and that the same species can be sent under several different names. The only ones I ever bought were Fritillaria species obtained through a middleman in the UK, and they were almost all misnamed, though I did end up with viable bulbs of two species (not the five I paid for, and not with the names they came under). Jim McClements wrote an article on his Chen Yi acquisitions (he specializes in woodland plants) and titled it "The Chinese Grab Bag." He acknowledged, however, that a couple of items from the grab bag were extremely good! Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/