EDITORIAL

The plant portraits in this issue cover a variety of plants and include a new cultivar of Deutzia purpurascens which Charles Nelson has enigmatically named ‘Alpine Magician’. To find out why he has chosen this name, read his article on p. 17 1. Also new are two species ofEpimedium, E. latisepalum and E. ogisui, here published by Professor W. T . Stearn in anticipation of his book on epimediums and other herbaceous genera in the Berberidaceae which will appear in the Kew Magazine Monograph series. The ground orchid Limodorum abortivum is an unusual inclusion because it has not so far been grown in cultivation, being saprophytic and obtaining its nourishment from the decay of organic matter in the soil, probably with the assistance of a mycorrhizal fungus.

There is an article on the European ORANGE LILY (Lilium bulbiferum subsp. croceum) by Fred Bos in which he maintains that this lily has not been introduced into north-western Europe but is native there - I hope it may provoke some correspondence and any comments you care to send to me will be passed on to the author.

I should perhaps mention (particularly for those of you who so kindly wrote to me in support of my annual book survey) that, at the time of writing, it seems unlikely that this feature will continue. Its compilation is extremely time-consuming and from now on The Kew Magazine will be under a part-time Editor who will be unable to devote the necessary time to searching for new books. I am leaving Kew to take up the position of Editor of another journal and this is the last issue of the Magazine which will appear under my Editorship. Despite the occasional off-stage panics which seem to accompany any publishing activity, I have enjoyed producing the Magazine and I hope that you have enjoyed reading it and will continue to subscribe. I am delighted that the new Editor will be Brian Mathew who has been a Kew Magazine committee member for many years and who is a frequent contributor. He retired from Kew at the end of 1992 and will edit the Magazine on a part-time free- lance basis. I hope that he derives as much pleasure and excitement from his new r6le as I have done.

Victoria Matthews

0 Bentbam-Moron Trust 1993 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 IJF, U K and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02 142, USA. 155