The plant on the left looks like basil. The one on the right looks like a mint of some sort. The key word here is "looks": the right-hand seedling also resembles juvenile berries or brambles.

Further testing should include scent. Do the leaves have a scent when bruised? Don't assault your plants; just rub a leaf between two fingers and check to see what the fragrance (if any) is. Don't taste them, though. One never knows ...

Please do post results of further experimentation and eventual flowering. This is interesting.

sarafenix - the URL to opt out of Charter's amusing enhancement scheme is:

www.charter.com/onlineprivacy

No suggestions on an alternate ISP in the Glendale CA area; several sisters of mine live in or near there and report ISP service is pretty universally nasty. And of course if you are using an ISP bundled with your telly service, you are utterly screwed - the monopoly system in LA dooms you to Charter in that area.

I am a Charter customer, and got notice of this newest "enhancement" via snail mail. However, the written notice included the URL where I could opt out of the entire thing. Which I did, with no difficulty.

There's a catch even in the courtesy opt-put, however. Charter plainly states that it works once per browser, which means you must repeat the process for every browser you use. (I use 3, depending on needs and who's system has crashed.) It also only works on the identification of the computer you use - not your own Charter sign in - which means you must also repeat it for every computer on which you use any Charter product. And lastly, emptying your internet cache or clearing cookies negates the opt-out, which must then be repeated.

Hoops, hoops, hoops. I can hardly wait for someone to figure out a way to sue them.

Splendid series, splendid book, splendid author. This is my favourite of the now-trio in Varley's Martian universe, partly because I live in Pismo Beach, where the book opens.

Mostly, though, I commend this book because the Heinlein juveniles were one of the brightest spots in my reading youth. They enliven my adulthood, too.I was in the later end of the original target audiance (my copies were the ones with the black and white illos actualy drawn by Heinlein), and I can say with happy authority that Varley's books are right on target.

Has anyone played the Spot The Title game in the last chapter?