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  Re: [Aroid-l] Common names
From: Hermine <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 2007.02.22 at 17:26:50(15323)
"well Graff called it such-and-such first, therefor this name is
correct" are patently incorrect, but there are people who will never
be convinced otherwise, let them be.
Graff and Burley-Marx NEVER claimed to be Taxonomists, but they were
fantastic collectors, growers and hobbyists, but no matter how huge
a contribution they made to horticulture and popularizing
plants, their names of plants often were just made-up ones FAR from
the scientifically accurate ones we now are trying to stabilize.

Good Growing,

Julius

Graff was a WONDERFUL MAN, and as far as I can tell, is probably the
person most responsible for whatever rage there is in the collecting
of rare and ungettable plants in the USA. I know EXOTICA was my
introduction to this (at first) hobby, and later an obsession.
However, Graff, when he came to our place, just wrote down whatever
names we had, and sometimes we explained to him that the name was
really only just the name it came with, and had not yet been verified
or blessed with any official recognition. We got the idea he was most
interested in getting out the WORD and the PHOTO, and was not a
taxonomist at all, nor did he claim to be one. So when i was looking
for a plant, i used to say, it is in EXOTICA on such and such and
such a page and it is called "whatever it was called"....as likely as
not we tracked down the plant without the proper name. this goes back
over fifty years. I still have that EXOTICA, which is held together
in places by DUCT TAPE.

I think you Aroid people are doing very nicely in sorting out names,
I have not seen death threats, nor mass exodus from the list, even
when a name is being dissected and found wanting or absent. I only
wish the target of my particular obsession....dare I say Sansevieria?
which is in disarray....were being discussed as rationally. I have
all but ordered my list to join this one, as a lesson in taxonomy
protocol and also polite table manners when such matters are discussed.

(my own aroid and fern collection is currently waiting for a real
insulated greenhouse to re-emerge). this is the calmest way I can
discuss what happens after two unusually cold winters harvest the
cream out of a collection.

cheers!

hermine

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