Were I graced with the ability to sing, a prime candidare would be the tune Charles Trenet got famous for in the 40s and 50s,…
A scientist and a writer
Category: Plants
Botany, which I did study awhile in my youth, holds a continued interest.
Plants are remarkable organisms.
In writing about them, in these small vignettes I try to combine the scientific and the cultural, the bucolic and the utilitarian, and to convey some of my sense of wonder – in brief to try and emulate some of the eighteenth-century natural historians, with the information now available to us.
Every year, many millions of Americans engage in an amateur art contest, showing self-reliance and ability at handywork, displayed outside their homes. I am not…
Almonds ! Their mere mention, at least to me, brings to mind snacks to accompany an evening drink. And that ought to remind us of…
Did the Almighty devise this plant with children in mind? Small enough to let them climb it and relish its nuts. These, suitably reachable and…
These familiar plants grow in woodland, hedges and scrub, and thrive in acidic soils.Brambles, one of their names, are familiar from their fruit, the blackberry:…
Tamus communis L., also known as Dioscorea communis (L.), or black bryony, is a very common plant in woods and hedges. It is found all…
We the French have this say, La valeur n’attend pas le nombre des années, i.e., merits can outnumber one’s years. Childhood is a modern, basically…
This plant owes its name to its identity in many a language as bears’ garlic: it is called “bear’s onion” or “bear’s garlic” throughout Europe:…
This flower stands out in its mountaineous habitat, typically meadows on high plateaux (altiplanos) where cattle are kept. Cows refrain from eating it, probably because…
The Latin name of the genus is a cognate of fraga, which was how Romans named this delicacy, for its fragrance — a cognate; it…