Re: HORATIUS

William A. Grant wrote:
> 
> Lars Porsena of Clusium
> By the nine gods he swore
> That the great house of Tarquin
> Should suffer wrong no more.
> By the nine gods he swore it
> And named the trying(?) day,
> And bade his messengers ride forth
> West and East and South and North
> To summon his array.
> Macaulay   (My book is long gone and my memory is quickly following.)

Hi Bill
I am almost the same vintage as you (I learnt the same verses about
1940)  and I too cannot get beyond "array". However I can put you right
on the word you were not sure of, not "trying" but "trysting". Otherwise
I should say you are word-perfect. I don't think modern education
appreciates how readily our built-in computer can be programmed when
young by rote learning.
  
> However, there is nothing weird, Tom, about calling this plant
> left-handed. We have grown it at the UCSC Arboretum for years, several
> forms of it. My favorite one shows a flower that looks as if someone
> has cut off half of the petals. Everyone comments that it looks as
> though the plant was ill, deformed, injured. There is a photo of one
> form in the Australian Native Plant website, but it isn't as good as I
> had hoped.

Scaevola, alas, seems to be a genus which loves and leaves me. I suspect
I am too kind. Many Australians seem to flourish on neglect.

Incidently, it seems not quite all the genus has the fan-shaped flowers.
S.striata (Royal Robes) pictured in my Australian Wildflower Catalogue
appears to have its petals symmetrically arranged.

Moira

-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand
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