Convallaria
Jane McGary (Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:48:47 PST)
Mark wrote:
I know and grow the rather disappointing Convallaria majalis 'Rosea',I
have seen it looking better in some gardens but is not a first class
plant.I was refering to the illustrations in the various hortus and
herbals of byegone times when speaking of really pink forms.Some were
called red!
We need to take old color descriptions with caution. Translating color
terms is difficult, and it's even harder to know just what, say, a German
herbalist writing in the regional Latin of the 18th century meant by "rubra."
For that matter, there is a whole range of languages that make no
distinction between what we English speakers call "blue" and "green," and
the red-to-yellow color range is also problematic cross-linguistically.
This subject forms a small but entertaining side area in semantics.
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA