At Oliver Nurseries, the alpines and plants that favor troughlike conditions are a small part of the vast offerings, as they have been since the nursery opened nearly 60 years ago.

“The Hunt”: A bummer, plunks along in narcotized, subterranean fashion, recalling the more troughlike passages of Big Star’s Sister Lovers.

Tim Rowan’s “Untitled,” a troughlike form resting on a metal stand, looks just like what it is: earth.

The Japanese maglev sits in a low, troughlike guideway, paved with two rows of metal boxes containing aluminum coils.

The researcher bases his thoughts about the dynamism of Venus on observations made by others through the huge radio telescope at Goldstone, Calif. One series of shots of Venus' surface shows a vast, troughlike depression about three-quarters of a mile long and 200 yds. wide; another shows, on an otherwise smooth plain, a cluster of 15 to 20 peaks in a pattern strongly reminiscent of volcanoes on earth.