One more name game item

---

• Subject: [GWL]: One more name game item
• From: m*@qwest.net
• Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 01:22:03 +0000
• List-archive: <http://topica.com/lists/Gardenwriters/read>

For an entertaining and educational article on the why and how of plants 
names, read Brent Elliott's article "The Identity Crisis of the Douglas 
Fir".  It was printed in The New Plantsman (which has recently gone back 
to being called The Plantsman; if you want to hear ranting and raving 
about name changes, ask a librarian about the name changes of 
periodicals) in March of 1994.

The Douglas fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, has had 19 different names and 
21 name changes.  Brent's opening paragraph reads:

"One of the liveliest and most predictable subjects of gardeners' 
conversation is the problem of changes in plant names, instituted for 
mysterious reasons by interfering botanists."

It may have kept the nurserymen calm, but I'm not sure it would've been 
a good idea to keep the Doug fir's first name -- Pinus taxifolia -- 
which was given at a time when all conifers were put into the genus 
Pinus.

Marty Wingate

==========================================================
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Get the latest weather,
sports, and lifestyle news you can't afford to miss, all
at a price you can afford to pay!  Click now!
http://click.topica.com/caaacQXbUrGSSbVSZwBf/TopOffers
==========================================================

GWL has searchable archives at: 
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters/
If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they will show up at  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos/ 
**************************************************

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: topica.com@spamfodder.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrGSS.bVSZwB
Or send an email to: Gardenwriters-unsubscribe@topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================

• Prev by Date: RE: Location of garden articles in newspapers
• Next by Date: Re: Location of garden articles in newspapers
• Previous by thread: Confusion over mail
• Next by thread: Re: One more name game item