"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message
...
A mini "Frequently Asked Questions" for sci.bio.botany


[big snip]

Impressed as I am by the list of resources you have so kindly provided, I
can't help but feel dejected by your post as you mention one of my earlier
posts "ancient Greek name for birch" directly above my most recent post
"blanching of plants...", especially as the NG you mention are simply not
available through my server, eg plant education.

But just what is one to do when having searched in vain for answers to such
questions, nothing has been forthcoming. Keep searching or give up? Or try
a little ask-around? I opt for the latter as I consider time is incredibly
short and therefore exceedingly precious.

I certainly do not regard the questions as trivial or off-topic, and neither
should many readers of this NG interested in how plants came to be named or
how we have come to accept certain treatments of plants as normal. But more
to the point is how the answers to these questions will be perceived in
future as much as they have been in the past, in this case the very distant
past of ancient Mediterranean.

For instance, I was recently informed (by someone that reads the back of
food packets) that sultanas and many other dried fruits were dipped in
certain oils to act as a preservative and to prevent the fruit from sticking
together, when lo and behold, the very next day or so I read in Pliny that
this was the practice at least two millennia ago. The same with putting
poppy seeds or sesame seeds on loaves, much to the chagrin of my local
bakery and McDonalds. Nothing new under the sun there it seems.

However, and this is where I shall go a little off topic, both questions
were asked as I seek to unravel the essence of the Corinthian column - the
most prolific capital type the world around - and perhaps the most
misunderstood despite it prevalence in many a hallowed hall of learnedness.

While I could write a major essay on my findings wrt the birch, it seems we
have been denied a major slice of its history of use (1000 years) simply
because we do not know its ancient Greek name. While I believe I have found
some of its ancient names, I have also stumbled onto its broader use, in
ancient Greek religion, for the Olympic Games, ancient writing, and a great
many other cultural and social aspects too numerous to bore one or all of
you here.

WRT blanching, were it not for ancient Greek experimentations we may wonder
why certain salad plants have proven ever so popular and just what it takes
to make a plant a household name and hence a valuable economic crop. And I
am sure there are no regrets here that the botanical industry, whether food,
floral, or simply fascinating, is still in a state of bloom. Touch wood!

I offer as an small example of my studies, blanched asparagus, which was
exceedingly popular during the Hellenistic period (333BCE - 31 BCE),
especially the white-stemmed purple-headed variety. It was so popular that
someone - a farmer, distributor, lover, or otherwise - decided to erect a
collossal column shaped as an asparagus spear immediately outside the front
entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, but which is nowadays called
(guess!) - the Acanthus Column. In todays terms, this would be like someone
raising an asparagus column on the site and to the former height of the now
vanquished WTC.

But for those that don't know, for nigh on two millennia, the acanthus has
been considered the model for the vegetation of the so-called Corinthian
capital. So what? you may well ask! Well, to begin with, it is simply wrong,
and secondly when you do work out what it is, you are likely to feel all
your christmasses have come at once. Indeed, you will begin to understand
many of the things you have taken for granted ever since you were a child,
such as christmas and even things botanical (surely derived from the Greek
botanikos), and you will even begin to understand things you are not even
aware of yet. Moreover your will be restored of your humour and good
health - guaranteed. All from discovering something completely trivial and
supposedly irrelevent to this NG.

Such is my little rant. I am still open and prepared for business.