The Book
Warrington, Pat (PWARRING@EPDIV1.env.gov.bc.ca)
Tue, 07 Feb 1995 09:09:00 -0800 (PST)
Ok. I do think that the book I had in mind is different than the monograph
that Jan has mentioned. Is it different enough to warrant the effort? Many of
the people working on the monograph have the necessary knowledge to help make
the book a success? Perhaps little extra effort would be required on their
part since they could use the material they have already prepared. I had
intended it to be a more or less popular compendium of what we know about the
plants: where they grow, descriptions, interesting tidbits, common and latin
names, identification keys and our experiences in how to grow them
successfully under various conditions (greenhouses, outdoors, windowsills,
growth rooms, pots, bog gardens, and propagation from seeds, cuttings, tissue
culture etc.). Some technical descriptions and synonymy would be required
(and for this I would like Jans help) so that we know exactly what entities
we are talking about ( we need a self consistent list of accepted species and
an arbiter of what is a species and what is a synonym). I want to keep the
book useful and interesting to the hobbiest rather than a fully cited
monograph. The value of doing it here on the net is that we could hopefully
avoid the errors everyone talks about finding in the published books. We have
botanists, writers, editors, librarians, growers, educators and people on the
ground all over the world; we also have hundreds of contributors and proof
readers so we should be able to get it right. One persons experience is
probably not adequate as published books seem to indicate. Having recently
joined the list I am aware of how trying it can be to get up to speed and
know what has already been discussed to death and what is new and
interesting. Such a book would be a useful read-me-first addition to the
archives for new subscribers. I will post, shortly, a brief suggested chapter
outline of what I have in mind.
Pat