Mark Smyth is not the first visitor to North America who wants to see a lot of plants and isn't quite sure how much he can fit in! There are some states and provinces, especially in the West, that take as long to drive end to end (on our good freeways) as it does to drive across most European countries. Mark, if you want to see alpine flora (and who doesn't?), you may find yourself in Colorado, and there are two superlative public gardens there: the Denver Botanic Garden and the Betty Ford Alpine Garden in Vail. Within an hour's drive of either, you can hike at 11,000 feet and upward. In the Pacific Northwest, there are many good places to see wild plants, and some public gardens too. The Bellevue Botanic Garden in Seattle is admired for its perennial plantings, and the nearby Rhododendron Species Foundation for the obvious sort of thing. If you like trees, the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland is world-famous, and there are also a staggering rose garden and one of the best Japanese gardens outside Japan in the same park. Many of the Northwest's nurseries, such as Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery in Medford and Northwest Garden Nursery in Eugene, also have remarkable display gardens that are open pretty much continually during the growing season. If you are going to Canada and find yourself in Vancouver, British Columbia, visit the University of British Columbia Botanic Gardens, where you can see a renowned Asian collection and a fine rock garden. A section of the new book "Rock Garden Design and Construction" (Timber Press and NARGS, 2003) describes many public gardens in the USA and Canada. The focus is on rock gardens but most of those described are just small sections of much more complex public botanic gardens. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon