RE: [Aroid-l] Supergenic naming.

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Re Exotica it is certainly true that there is nothing quite like it, and I have spent many hours going through many of the sections- fact remains that, like many useful tools, it needs to be used with a clear understanding of what it can do and what it can’t.  Perhaps for the new edition, a warning like “Total dependence on the names in this book can be damaging to your communicability”.

 

Derek

 

-----Original Message-----
From: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com [mailto:aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of hermine
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 6:21 PM
To: Discussion of aroids; aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Subject: RE: [Aroid-l] Supergenic naming.

 

        I do know that in one of his last books he asked Josef Bogner to check names and Boger showed this to both Simon Mayo and I so there was some improvement in the names.  The real value of the older version of Exotica 3, which is so widely read, is that it allows us to communicate about plant even if the name is unknown.  In some cases it really does not matter if we know the real name.  I often hear about such and such a species as on P. such and such in Exotica 3.

Tom

He once came to our place and photographed some stuff, perhaps it was bamboo, and at that time the names were uncertain; today they are still a subject of polite argument. But he wrote down the names we had, as the best names at the time. EXOTICA was my introduction to rare plants, i lived at the library until i had almost MEMORIZED it. I know the Sansevieria names are all messed up, but it was an amazement to see that there were the uncommon ones photographed and published ANYWHERE in those dark, unenlightened times!

hermine