Re: REF: New Iris Book

Hi Anner,

I don't think I've ever seen a book that has as its focus lots of 
pictures. which doesn't have at least a few mistakenly identified.   It is 
rare that an author knows all of the plants with absolute certainty that 
are included, and has no way to know nor reason to doubt any particular 
photo.  I don't know if it is so in this case, but often such books are a 
compilation of photos of several contributors, and that adds to the 
possibility of a mistake.  With the history of occasional, but always 
present substituted or misidentified cultivars in the Iris trade, this 
adds to the possibilities for mistaken identifications.  In short, it is 
almost impossible to write a totally error free book.   It is also 
possible that photos were switched or substituted during editing (I've had 
this actually done to me in an article on Yuccas I wrote for Fine 
Gardening, where they chopped the article and substituted pictures from 
somebody else at the last minute, without telling me, and got all the 
captions wrong! - never did get a correction, retraction, or even 
acknowledgement nor apology - haven't bought a Fine Gardening magazine in 
something over 10 years now - but that's a whole 'nother story.),

In the case of this book,  I expect that nearly all the photos are 
correctly identified, but I know some are not.  The only one I can 
remember by name off-hand is 'Amas', and the cultivar in the photo (or one 
very like it) has often been published as representing 'Amas', even though 
it is not.  This probably dates back to some error made in a garden or 
nursery and passed down and around.

I'm fairly certain that if any one of us attempted to compile a book like 
this, some errors would find their way in, no matter how careful we are.

I don't think it's necessarily a negative comment toward the book that 
there are a few misidentifications, but I would hope that as readers point 
them out, they would be corrected in any future printings.

It is a beautiful book, and there are quite a few cultivars pictured that 
I don't think are very commonly grown in the US.

Dave








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11/06/2005 04:33 PM
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Re: [iris] REF: New Iris Book






In a message dated 11/5/2005 11:20:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
DFerguson@cabq.gov writes:

<<I noticed several misidentified photos, but I suppose that is inevitable 

in a book of this scope and size. >>
 
Why?
 
Anner Whitehead
Richmond VA USA

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