botanical babble

Gay - 

I'm not sure we could find anyone on this list who has ever been
the recipient of your wit and charm that could agree with the term
'nonsense' in qualifying your posts.  You name is often used lovingly
in conversations among the medit-plants members with which I converse
'off-line'.

Your post inspired me to retell a story about latin names:

Many years ago, when my wife and I were first married and on our
honeymoon in the Pacific Northwest, she suddenyly stopped me as we
were hiking on the Olympic Pennisula, among the giant Douglas Fir
and their associated flora.  You see, I had studied this flora for
years but this was the first time I had seen any of it in its native
haunts.  I had apparently been spewwing out latin at a furious pace
(though I must say I usually added the common name whenever I knew it).
The first argument of our married life revolved around the names of
plants.  "Ok!" she said, "I know you're enjoying yourself and I'd really
like to know what all of the little beauties are, but you are making my
head spin!!  I must insist that you restrain yourself to telling me
about only 10 new plant per day and the rest you keep to yourself!!"
Deb is a very smart woman, and certainly interested and appreciative
of botanical and horticultural information, but she was not so steeped
in it as I that she could bear total immersion into botanical latin
(any more than she could endure waking suddenly from a nap on a long
drive because I slammed on the brakes, only to catch the slightest
glimpse of me heading into the bushes to check out that flash of color
or different leaf texture I had seen in the distance!).

My initial reaction to her request was the thought that this would be
easy and certainly a fair proposition.  Only later did I realize, after
'keeping track' of the new plants I was naming, that I did indeed have to
hold my tongue before midday!  Deb had a much better time and to this
day still remembers most of those species!  I could feel proud that I was
being considerate of my wife's feelings every time I saw something else
for the first time and had to mentally calculate if I had an availble
'slot' to announce it in passing.  ;-)

Sean A. O'Hara                       sean.ohara@poboxes.com
h o r t u l u s   a p t u s          710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose'     Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
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