Michael Chamberland's color comments

From: Barry Meyers-Rice (bamrice@ucdavis.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 09 1998 - 09:26:35 PDT


Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 09:26:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Barry Meyers-Rice <bamrice@ucdavis.edu>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1960$foo@default>
Subject: Michael Chamberland's color comments

Hi Michael,

I agree wholeheartedly with your concise discussion of trivial botanical
names...

>If the plant is of interest to horticulture, a lineage selected from wild
>origin may be named as a cultivar. I am pleased to see in the updated
>FAQ
>that Barry Meyers-Rice has chosen to name his anthocyanin-lacking
>Darlingtonia discovery as a cultivar; Darlingtonia 'Othello' (though I am
>perplexed by the choice of name, since Othello was not white :-)

The FAQ is slightly premature in this respect, I must admit. The cultivar
description (in CPN 27:2) is at the printer's, so is not *quite* yet
official. The choice of 'Othello' was inspired by some recent reading of
the Bard, where I found Iago noting Othello's great jealousy as the "Green
eye'd maw which doth mock the very meat it feeds upon." Appropriate, I
thought. :)

>A guide to naming cultivars can be found in the most recent issue of the
>Carnivorous Plant Newsletter (March 1998, vol 27:1). Also in this issue
>is
>a formal description of a yellow-flowered form, Sarracenia purpurea subs.
>vernosa var. burkii f. luteola. As I understand it this yellow-flowered
>plant is a textbook case of one fitting naming as a cultivar. Why it was
>given a Latin forma name, in this issue no less, has me confused.

Jan and I take our positions as editors very seriously, and do not feel we
are in the position to squelch various scientific viewpoints. Bob
Hanrahan's paper was sent to a very well-respected anonymous reviewer who
did not have problems with the paper. Whether posterity chooses to
recognize this taxon is not the choice of the editors of CPN.

Barry

------------------------
Dr. Barry A. Meyers-Rice
Carnivorous Plant Newsletter
Conservation Coeditor
bazza@ucdavis.edu
http://www.indirect.com/www/bazza/cps/cpn/cpn.html



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