----- Original Message -----
To:
Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 11:25 PM
Subject: [aroid-l] Orchid Hunter
> The narrator of Orchid Hunter delivered one of my pet peeves. He
> distinctly said, "horticulturalist". Alas, he is in good company; I've
> even heard people who work for the extension service say it.
>
> I found this show a bit of a disappointment also.
>
> Mary Elliott
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >> just finished watching the NOVA show on "orchid hunter." somewhat
> disappointing, what did you all think? i thought mr. hart-dyke came
across
>
> as a bit of a jerk. now what's so disappointing is how shoddy the science
> knowledge of the producers came across. for example, they seemed not to
> know
> the distinction between hybrids and species, as when they talked about
> naming
> orchids after mr. hart-dyke's grandmother (which would be a new species
> that
> he so desperately wanted to find) and orchids named after elizabeth taylor
> or
> barbara bush (hybrids, of course). another one, the story about the
orchid
>
> explorers going to the philippines and one getting eaten by a tiger. as
> far
> as i can find out, tigers never existed in the philippines. i also felt
> that
> they kept throwing lots of generalities about orchids as if whatever they
> were saying applied to all orchids. and when they were talking about the
> "sexiness" of orchids, they said that the word orchid comes from the greek
> word for testicle, but didn't explain why (the round bulbs of some
european
>
> terrestrial orchids - the genus Orchis - that resemble testicles). and
> they
> totally glossed over the controversy over the naming of Phragmipedium
> kovachii.
>
> although the author susan orlean makes some interesting points, as her
book
>
> "orchid thief" shows, her science is quite weak. even better would have
> been
> using eric hansen, whose "orchid fever" is a far superior book (although
> the
> two books are quite different in focus). hansen is a much better
> journalist
> in my opinion. maybe he wasn't available...
>
> i think that if i had the chance to go to some unexplored or little
> explored
> place, i'd love to do a survey of all plants, not just orchids. even
> better,
> to be able to work to preserve such a place.
>
> tsuh yang CHEN in NY <<
>
>
> E-mail from: Lowell McCormick, 29-Nov-2002
>
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