No subject

[hornig at Oswego.EDU]

hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
From: Ellen Hornig <hornig at OSWEGO.EDU>
Subject: About Roy - not about Chen Yi
Comments: cc: rrh at GENESIS.NRED.MA.US
In-Reply-To: <19990503.162503.13263.3.GRSJr at juno.com>
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Well, I'm going to stick my neck out here, even if no-one else will.

Roy is one of a handful of people who have made Arisaema-L worth
subscribing to.  His webpages are amazing, and he has, I am sure, put
countless hours into updating them, revising them, and keeping them
beautiful.  You can go there to look at pretty pictures or, if you're of =a
more scholarly bent, to seek out references.  Roy has done all this
because he thinks it's worth doing, not because he has any commercial
interest in arisaemas (he *has* introduced some lovely hostas, but that's
another story - suitable for Trillium-L, perhaps?).  Is it any wonder tha=t
he should care about correct nomenclature?

I know a lot of people think the whole thing could have been dropped
sooner than it was, but Roy at least conducted himself like a gentleman
throughout the fray.  I wouldn't say the same about everyone else
involved.  One of the first things I observed when I started teaching (13
years of college-level economics, now over with, thank goodness) was the
stifling influence that bullying behavior, whether on the part of the
professor or of students, had on fruitful discourse.  Put in plainer
English, when gentle souls anticipate that the shit will hit the fan if
they speak up, they cease to speak up.  I think there are some parallels
here, but flying shit has never bothered me overly much.

So - I just want to say, publically (I like to assume other people have a=t
least said it privately) that I will be very sorry indeed if Roy stays of=f
the list, and very sorry indeed if he thinks his efforts to publicize one
of our favorite genera have been for naught.  He has done a wonderful job.

Ellen

(A.B. Harvard U.; M.S. and Ph.D, Cornell U.; now a simple farmer :-) )

*************************************************************************=******************
Ellen Hornig
Seneca Hill Perennials
3712 Co. Rte. 57
Oswego, NY 13126
USDA zone 5b (mintemps -10 to -20F)
Phone:(315)342-5915
Website: www.senecahill.com