Rodger, You're in luck! I've recently been given a set of Jim Archibald's catalogues; the first in the pile is Sept. 1990. For 630.480 the entry reads: Leucojum tingitanum Morocoo, Rif Mts, above Xauen (Chefchaouen). (we still have some seeed left of from John Blanchard's 1989 collection of this obscure species, apparently restricted to one or two localities in NW Morocco. Spring-flowering and more robust than L. trichophyllum. John tells us that the stems are up to 30 cm high, each with up to 7 white flowers to 18 mm across. 15+ seeds E (= $5.50, £3.50) This plant is now correctly known as Acis tingitana, to follow the very sensible suggestion from botanists at Kew that all the small Leucojums with narrow leaves and unmarked flowers revert to the old genus Acis, reserving Leucojum for the robust, wide-leaved, green-marked L. aestivum and L. vernum. That nobody has questioned this extraordinary lumping (inb the 1880s, by J.G. Baker) in the past is really quite remarkable. John Grimshaw Dr John M. Grimshaw Garden Manager, Colesbourne Gardens Gardens Cottage Colesbourne Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rodger Whitlock" <totototo@pacificcoast.net> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 10:16 AM Subject: [pbs] Leucojum JCA 630.480 > I have a tentatively identified this plant as Leucojum fontianum, not > L. tingitanum. > > According to the key in Brian Mathew's "The Smaller Bulbs" (Batsford, > 1987), these two species can be distinguished on the basis of the > width of the leaf: > > L. fontianum: leaves 6-8 mm wide > L. tingitanum: leaves 2.5 mm or less wide > > Mathew describes the species as having leaves "rather wider than most > of the small-flowered species." This agrees very well with my > plant. However, he also says "F. C. Stern, in 'Snowdrops and > Snowflakes', considered it [L. fontianum] to be a robust form of L. > tingitanum." > > Mathew refers to the leaves of L. tingitanum as "linear", which is > most definitely NOT what I have on my hands. > > The pictures of L. tingitanum on the wiki unfortunately concentrate > on the inflorescence rather than the leaves, and being closeups, do > not offer any visual clues to the size of the plants depicted. I > cannot say if they depict the same plant as mine. > > Again, let me ask: does anyone have the Archibald seedlists from > around 1990? If so, where was this collection made? > > > -- > Rodger Whitlock > Victoria, British Columbia, Canada > Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate > > on beautiful Vancouver Island > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >