****************************************************** PR # 41100 We propose to observe two metal-poor giant elliptical galaxies NGC5018 and NGC2865. These galaxies are well known to have unusually low Mg2 indices indicating very low metallicity in spite of their high luminosity. We wish to confirm first if hot X-ray gas in these galaxies show really low iron abundances which suggest they were formed by rare mergers bewteen two gas-less ellipticals. Second, and if so it means that the observed iron abudance in the gas is essentially the same as the mean stellar iron abundance and suggests no SNIa contribution to the nucleosynthesis in elliptical galaxies, in contrast to the case in the solar neighbourhood of the Milky Way. ******************************************************