On 7 Jan 08, at 7:30, John Grimshaw wrote: > The fact is that we do not possess a precise vocabulary for > distinguishing plants into growth-form categories and inevitably some > taxa are shoehorned into slots they do not deserve The problem is that Mother Nature doesn't much care for discrete categories with sharp dividing lines. She loves continua with lots of gray areas, thereby driving the logically minded to a state of utter despair. There are some fairly sharply defined groups of plants, of course: oaks and cyclamen being 2 examples. But not everything is so straightforward. These inevitable gray areas and ambiguities are something for newcomers to the Exciting World of Botanical Nomenclature to keep in mind, by the way. They even appertain to categories of categories such as "family" and "genus". -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island