New Ferns

Easter has also allowed a flurry of pteridological activity. I have sown this year's set of spores (40 pots, currently cluttering my home) and purchased a beautiful new Asplenium hispidulum (Asplenium bronze venus) from RHS Wisley.

More good books

With the glorious relaxation of the Easter holidays I have been able to start reading my way through my birthday acquisitions from Foyles, which were somewhat substantial.

Having finally finished re-reading Eco's The Name of the Rose, I have sped through a superb Gervase Fen detective thriller by Edmund Crispin - Holy disorders which is a complex superposition of cathedral life, Nazi fifth columnists and devilry. In addition, I've been reading a rather beautiful volume by Hazel Rossotti (sometime member of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford) entitled Fire - Servant, Scourge and Enigma. Originally an OUP edition (1993), it is now available as a Dover paperback (2002) that is an unabridged reproduction, though without colour prints. Rossotti divides the book in to five themes

• fire, the phenomenon
• fire for comfort
• fire for use
• fire as hazard
• fire for contemplation

and takes with reader through a gentle whirlwind of everything fire-related. Rossotti has achieved the rare distinction of being readable and yet full of content and would engage the reader, whether scientist or layman.

Next in my sights are Robert Harris's The Ghost and a monograph on the historical development of the use of chloroform, mainly focussed upon applications in anaethesia. After those, there's an Eric Ambler thriller and a biography of Lavoisier so I should be busy for the rest of the week!