GUEST EDITORIAL

摘要

Anyone who has had the privilege to talk at a BCSS branch meeting will know that it is generally a nice experience. You meet new people and usually have a good chat about your common interest in succulents. However, there is the odd occasion when sucha talk can be a drag when you are faced with an audience that is just not alive. No laughing at your well-constructed jokes, no tutting at your lovely photographs and no finishing your sentences for you when searching for the correct English word causesyou to pause for just too long. The occasional snoring sound from the back of the room makes you speed up just to get to the break so that you can re-group and try again in the second half of the talk. At one such recent talk the slide with 'TIME FOR ABREAK' could not come too soon. As I was about take the first sip of my tea a large man thrust his hand into mine. 'Jim Smith*' he said and then added; 'it is good to finally put a face to a name'. Totally over-whelmed by this I stupidly responded with;T hope it is not a disappointment'. After a short pause Jim said; 'No, no, only the face'. As I am not easily offended, I chuckled and then Jim started with what he really wanted to say. 'There are only two of your kind', he said, meaning two types of Lithops enthusiasts. 'Those that go to Africa all the time and give a personal number to every plant they find and those that never get to see Lithops other than in their pots and want to make each plant they have a new cultivar.' In a strange way Jim iscorrect but I think we should be fair and recognise the third group of Lithops enthusiasts that keep Lithops because they like them.