Recently I was looking up information on a new species of bulb from South America and discovered that it was described by Ravenna. I know that there is a lot of controversy about things he declares to be new species. On the other hand, since so few people are doing any plant exploring in Latin America, I wonder if at least a few of the new species he describes might actually be new species. Well, it turns out that one of the 'pages gave an email address to inquire about getting copies of Onira and Botanica Australis where this and many other of Ravenna's new species are described. I had heard that these are self-published journals that come out on an irregular basis, and are yet another reason there is some controversy and some people don't trust him. But I thought it would be interesting to look at some of these articles just to see what some of these new species are. The address is a yahoo.co.uk address, so I wasn't sure who in the UK would be handling these publications. Well, it appears that this is an address for Piero Ravenna who I assume is The Ravenna. He told me that all the issues are available except Volume 1 which is depleted and Vol. 2 in which the originals were damaged. He's up to Vol. 10 of Onira and Vol. 6 of Botanica Australis. (I'm not sure what the difference in the two publications is.) However, he wants US $100 per issue! This seems unusually expensive, even for journals. But I am no botanist, so I don't know. He seems very eager to sell me them, even offering a 20% discount after I said I didn't want to purchase any. Are there libraries at places (other than say Kew or MoBot) that have these publications? Are they accepted by other botanists and places like Kew or MoBot? And does anyone have first hand experience with any of the many new species and even genera that Ravenna has described to say whether they are truly new species or genera? Is there any other source other than Onira or Botanica Australis that has descriptions or, better yet, photos of any of these new species or genera? Is anyone growing any of the bulbs he describes? I sure wish someone or someones would publish a nice Timber Press coffee table book on the bulbs of Latin America! --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USA, USDA Zone 10a