On Sat, 7 Jun 2003 10:41:30 +0100, Malcolm
wrote:

~
~In article , Kay Easton
writes
~TV tonight - Rachel de Thame
~'a national Collection is a collection of a single *species*' ... then
~almost in the same breath 'the National collection of Crocus' ... so all
~crocus are the same species, are they?
~
~Is this TV dumbing down and protecting its viewers from difficult words
~like 'genus' which they don't understand?
~It surely can't be Rachel de T herself who doesn't understand the
~difference?
~
~This sort of thing does get me cross!
~
~In one of the earlier programmes in the series, she visited the new
~Yorkshire RHS garden and both she and one of the gardeners there used
~the name Mare's Tail when looking at a border full of Horsetail and
~saying that it would have to be eradicated by spraying. OK, Equisetum
~is, sometimes, called Mare's Tail, though I'm not alone in thinking it
~shouldn't be, but the error was doubly confounded by the entry in the
~Radio Times which not only mentioned that they would discuss a problem
~with Mare's Tail but used the Latin name Hippuris vulgaris :-(
~
~If only all my Horsetail could be replaced by Mare's Tail.....!

I grew up calling it Mare's Tail, as my grandad's garden was full of
it. He was a lifelong gardener, with allotments etc and I think it
broke his heart when the next door neighbour never did anything and
the Mare's Tails arrived under the fence. Perhaps this is why Harlow
Carr calls them Mare's Tails - I'm northern too... is there a
north-south split in the common name?

I still am a bit schizo about what common name I use so I tend to
favour equisetum!


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!