Re: [wolfrunners] Languages & SF/F (fwd)

On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Barry Garcia wrote:

> CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
> >Seems to me a lot of plants in English have common names that don't have
> >anything to do with their biological genus/species classifications anyway.
>
> This is why when I talk about plants elsewhere I give the Latin name if I
> can. Common names are really a bad thing to use to ask about things like
> plants, because often, more than one plant has the same name (such as
> "lime" it can refer to the linden, or Tilia (IIRC), or the citrus)
<wry g>  When I need to know about plants, I give a description and maybe
a common name or three to my horticulture-major friend, who can probably
get the Latin name from memory.

YHL