Jacob Knecht wrote: "I would also like to know the etymology of its specific epithet (and how to pronounce it)." Since no one else rose to the bait on this one, I'll stick my neck out and make a guess. There is a Manie van der Schijff Botanical Garden associated with the University of Pretoria Botanical Garden. Further Google searches turn up this: there is a Professor Hermanus (Manie) Philippus van der Schijff, born in 1921 and evidently still living. The Eucomis was named in 1976 by Reyneke, so it’s a good guess. I once asked a similar question about the pronunciation of a British name. John Grimshaw responded by sending the telephone number of some of the living members of the family in question - with the advice that I ring them up and see what they say. So, why not ring up Professor van der Schijff and find out how he pronounces his name? I'll bet it's something like skayf, and if so, the botanical epithet would be pronounced (by me anyway) SKAYF-e-ee (where ay represents the long Latin e and the e represents the short i of Latin and the ii represents the long i of Latin). Please, none of that skayf-ee-eye stuff! Now make that telephone call and tell me how close I've gotten. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/