Gardeners Latin A Lexicon

Posted In: Gj Gardner

Dave Haft says...

For lovers of plants, language, and beautiful books, this is a perfect book.The translation of botanical latin is helpful to anyone interested in the origin of plant names. The sketches, marginal notes and quotations, layout and size of the book make it a pleasure to use.The task of memorizing hundreds of plant names, which is my burden as a horticulture student, is enjoyable because I have this little book as my interpreter and companion. I've convinced all of my gardening friends to buy this book.

Posted on February 21, 2011

Lynn Dziewanowski says...

John Gardner's first James Bond novel is a complete failure on all fronts.

He has completely taken all the life out of Bond. The worldly agent thatIan Fleming created is nowhere to be found in this novel. The nauseatingscent of smoke and sweat of the casino are absent. Bond is reduced todrinking Perrier water!

The villain, Anton Murik Laird of Murcaldy, is aweak version of Hugo Drax. He is an unworthy opponent, even for a watereddown Bond.

Gardner's style as a writer is about as dry as a billiardstable. Being dry isn't necessarily a bad thing. He's just plain flat-outboring and stating that he even has style is a bit of a compliment.

Gardner is no Ian Fleming. That statement goes without question in mymind. However, it is an unfair comparison. If he had copied Fleming's styleeveryone would shout, "copycat!" If only Gardner had come up with somethinginnovative yet retained the qualities that Fleming had endowed on hischaracter and injected into his "world of 007."

The only successfulsuccessor to Fleming was the late Kingsly Amis with his only Bond novel"Colonel Sun." He could have been called a "copycat" of theFleming style.Amis however, was a fervent Fleming aficionado and hisnovel was more in homage to the author.

Gardner just does not have theFleming connection and that will work against any author who tries to pickup where Fleming left off.

Posted on February 21, 2011

Frances Garasha says...

When I got into gardening and especially with planting with native plants I started to pay a lot of attention to the latin names - but I didn't really understand what they meant. Hanging out with an older, very wise friend and his wife, we got talking about ceratin plants and they were rattling off the latin names and their meanings.It was amazing and so poetic that I wanted to learn more so I found this book.Its really been a great asset.Its set up alphabetically by latin name, and for each word, its less of a definition, more of a translation, e.g. palliflavens = pale yellow, squamosus = full of scales.Its a neat book - not as poetic in the translations as I had hoped but interesting nonetheless.

Posted on February 22, 2011

Numbers Deporter says...

This is a cute little book with interesting asides about selected plants. As fun as it is it lacks straight forward readability. It is not the best reference book because of this problem. If you are more into the reference mode then 'Stern's Book of Plant Names' is going to make you happier. If you just want a bathroom read that offers an engaging insight into a plant that you may never have considered looking up then this is for you.

Posted on February 24, 2011

Sharron Wahs says...

If you've always wanted the key to the botanical universe to follow Raman's Incandescene of flowers, in coalescing knowledge always careful to leave four (4) plants unmolested and untrampled (Hester Reagan), anddovetail the Harvard botanist Grey (Gray?)'s _Manual of Botany);.. thenthis is your ticket to heaven

As Francis Chapman Pellett quotes in_American Honey Plants_, Whether to Heaven or Gehenna; he that goesfastest, goeth alone.

Hester Reagan her picture is in_CherokeePlants: their uses - a 400 year history_, (C)1975 by Hamel and Chiltosky,Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-27776

Posted on February 25, 2011

Ike Loebs says...

Well, I'm a gardener and a wordsmith, and I think you must be both toreally enjoy this book--and I don't recommend it to folks who like togarden but hate to worry about details. I can't picture someone whodislikes Latin, or questions why Linnaeus (they won't even know who he is)insisted on using Latin to develop his taxonomies, finding this bookuseful.

I've known quite a few "garden artists" who callplants by their local colloquial names, and when you carry on aconversation with them they persist in calling Digitalus"Foxgloves" when we who know Latin know that Digitalus refers todigits as in parts of hands over which gloves fit--that foxes wouldundoubtedly wear if they wore gloves.

I learned to forego showing off myLatin when I was asking serious questions of fabulous "old-time"gardeners. Latin terms are useful if you're trying to converse withhorticulturists, gardening friends in other localities, or folks who havemigrated from to your growing zone.Latin is also useful if you're lookingup a name in a good garden book since all of them use Latin."Gardener's Latin" contains a simple listing of Latin terms (135small pages) and seems to have most of the more common terms.

If your apoet, you'll still want to use "Foxgloves", "BouncingBet" and "Queen Anne's Lace in your discourse.

Posted on February 25, 2011

Lupe Bundick says...

John Gardner not only looks bad next to Ian Flemming -- he just doesn't write well.His books tend to be comic books without the pictures.Some later ones turn out to be bearable, but this one, his first, is not.As anavid Bond fan I have twice attempted to get through this realtively shortand simple book.I just can't do it.Its too bad.This license should berevoked.

Posted on February 26, 2011

Shea Corraro says...

I was so eager to get this book!Finally my high school Latin might pay off! I wanted it to truly be a useful reference guide.But so far, after trying to find a dozen terms from plants in my own garden, I came up 0 for 12.



And the lookup can be annoying because the publisher made an artistic decision to leave the right edge of the book untrimmed so the pages are all a little different width.Because of this, it's not really possible to fan the pages one at a time - they flop 20 pages as a time.So to locate a term, you must turn each page.

Posted on February 28, 2011

Isaura Housler says...

I eally wanted something that was more helpful than basically a listing of latin plant names.

Posted on March 2, 2011

Richard Perro says...

I teach gardening classes with titles such as "Seed Catalogs areSeductive" and "Saving Seeds" and have recommended this bookto my students. It is fun, and informative. Let's face it, you can't getfar with gardening for fun, hobby or business if you don't learn somelatin. Gardener's Latin makes it easy and explains all those things you'vebeen wondering about. This is a fresh and enjoyable book and I think onethat will be enjoyed by most gardeners. Add it to your wish list - theweeding season will soon be over and the reading season will begin.

Posted on March 2, 2011