"The Greenhouse Planet," first discovered m 8112 B G It was listed as a nondescript planet with a humid atmosphere, moderate temperatures, shallow inland seas covenng vast areas of the two main continents and the customary large variations between the equator and the poles Bcaz soon became the fief of House Plana and gained a reputation as a botanical bonanza, the humidity, more than the warmth, accounted for its unparalleled profusion of planthfe House Plana sponsored extensive research laboratories m an attempt to catalog and breed useful strains of some of the more intriguing plants alt methods were used, including forced mutation and spraying of controlled environments with mutagemc compounds House Plana's work came to an abrupt halt in 7033 B G when Ecaz became the only planet ever to suffer a general atomic attack before the Jihad The ' Slagging of Ecaz''-an Imperial answer to a burgeoning rebellion-resulted in the complete destruction of all human artifdUs The weapons used were 'diggers intended to blast out deep strongpomts, causing radioactive byproducts so substantial as to render the entire planet uninhabitable But more important than the radiation was the breaching of the formerly sealed botanical research and development stations, releasing the mutagenic bactena, viruses and chemicals into the atmosphere For centuries only the taller mountain peaks and the polar ice caps could be safely visited In the lowlands, and especially around the former population centers the residual radiation was deadly and the planet was left uninhabited for thousands of years Not until ECAZ PLANTS OF 197 ECAZ PLANTS OF after the Jihad, in the desperate search for substitutes for the thinking machines and their products, was Ecaz again explored The researches that the explorers had conducted before their arrival at Ecaz completely failed to prepare them for what they found The atomic release of the mutagemc microbes of House Plana had resulted in a flora run wild in the thousands of years of isolation Most of (he anmul life of the planet had died except for the insects In addition, there had been a complete elimination of hardwood plants and considerable dieback among all plants with life-cycles of more than one or two local seasons But the niches vacated by the extinction of the more long-lived plants did not stay vacant for long Entirely new forms of plant Me had arisen on Ecaz many were totally unknown and so phenomenal that the explorers were ridiculed by their colleagues, even when they presented specimens Although many uses have been discovered for Ecazian plants, there has never been a successful attempt to resettle the planet, and House Xitan, which owns and administers Ecaz, has ceased trying to keep a station on the surface Exploratory groups are rotated off-planet after a period of only one standard week on Ecaz (Or less, if signs of Pneumo-fungus, Skin seeds, or Hairoot are detected), after which at least a month of sterile-room recovery is needed.