HIST:Swerti vs. Swertii

Last night in poring over Superstition Garden's new 2005 catalog I ran across
the entry for SWERTI, with a note about a corrected spelling.  This got me
curious, so I started digging.

On p. 524 of the *Alphabetical Iris Check List...1939* is the entry for
SWERTI, with the notation "(Coll. -Figured in 1612") followed by an entry
"Swert's Florilegium 1612" then a number of subsequent references.

Since we've been discussing "Swertii" I thought I might post a note that we
haven't been using the right form of the name (Thanks, Rick and Roger!).

Unpacking the cryptic data, I assume the entries beginning with "Swert's" have
to do with where and when the clone is published, with the earliest notation
in the "Florilegium" --a book of flowers, judging by the name, with the
"Swert" accounting for the origin of the variety's name.  "Figured" suggests
an illustration.

A rather fun bit of iris history trivia, is this not!  It sure does resolve
the "ee-eye" problem for this one.  Only one "eye" and it wouldn't be
pronounced "eye" anyway.  It's "ee"--or "i" as in "machine."

Now, what about the rest of the word?  My tongue wants to make "schv" out of
that "Sw"--resulting in something like "schvetty."  I'm going to have to check
that out.

Neil Mogensen  z 7 western NC mountains

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