[lit-ideas] Re: Hereabouts ... and beyond
- From: epostboxx@xxxxxxxx
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2018 09:56:35 +0100
On 4. Nov 2018, at 20:39, david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
. . . one of my garden joys, which a web photo calls “pink purple shrimp
plant.” Frankly, I don’t know what it is; it was given to me by a gardening
friend.
https://www.alamy.com/fruit-berries-and-flower-of-pink-purple-shrimp-plant-beloperone-guttata-image217616695.html
Perhaps you can enlighten us all? Audience participation.
The plant identified as Beloperone guttata in the link given above is now
assigned to the genus Justicia (a member of the Acanthaceae family); its
current scientific name is Justicia brandegeeana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justicia_brandegeeana
According to Wikipedia, common English names include 'Mexican shrimp plant',
'shrimp plant' and 'false hop'. (I will note here that the material found under
the rubric 'Justicia brandegeeana' exemplifies the reliability of Wikipedia.
This particular article contradicts itself - in two places the size of the
plant is given as 1 meter: "It grows to 1 m tall [rarely more]" and "a bushy
evergreen shrub growing to 100 cm [39 in] tall." Further down we read, "if left
alone [it] can grow over 24 inches tall." As with all Wikipedia articles:
Caveat lector!)
The plant's 'new' name honours the American botanist Townshend Stith Brandegee
(who was responsible for its former, now obsolete, nomenclature and
classification).
And now I will digress.
According to the Wikipedia entry about him, Brandegee "collected wood for
Charles Sprague Sargent," a noted American dendrologist.
Material (including illustrations) from Sargeant's SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA
(1889-1901) was used in the compilation of the second edition of the reprint of
R. B. Hough's AMERICAN WOODS issued by Taschen Verlag in 2002 under the name
THE WOODBOOK: THE COMPLETE PLATES.
This 'reprint' is, in fact, a facsimile - prepared from photographic
illustrations of the prepared specimens of the wood of 354 North American tree
species and varieties contained in Hough's AMERICAN WOODS.
I put the word 'reprint' in 'scare quotes', because Hough's AMERICAN WOODS is
in fact a 14-volume collection of actual wood samples from across North America
(as evidenced by its full title: THE AMERICAN WOODS: EXHIBITED BY ACTUAL
SPECIMENS AND WITH COPIOUS EXPLANATORY TEXT). Hough compiled copies of THE
AMERICAN WOODS using a specialized veneer cutter capable of slicing wood to a
thickness of 1⁄1200 inch (0.021 mm). Between 1888 and 1913, he published
thirteen volumes; a 14th volume was issued posthumously by his daughter several
years after his death. (In 2000 a set of the original AMERICAN WOODS COLLECTION
was sold by art auction house Christie's for $92,100.)
I am fortunate enough to own a copy of the Taschen 'reprint'. You can peruse
sample pages here:
https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/classics/all/44406/facts.romeyn_b_hough_the_woodbook.htm#images_gallery-2
(I originally intended to continue this posting with descriptions of other
botanical books which I prize to the same degree as THE WOODBOOK. List members
are hereby warned that I am saving completion that digression for a possible
future posting.)
Chris Bruce,
now wondering about just what it is that this indulgence
in 'constructive procrastination' is helping him avoid, in
Kiel, Germany
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