flahr-names

[Dennis R. Preston]

Snake,

Actually, I am not in line with you at all. What I wrote (and I guess
I wasn't clear about) was the botanical classification (in which, as
you say, daffodils and jonquils are subsets of narcissus). For me
personally, although buttercups don't belong to the same "branch,"
the truth is that I have no dominating term although I recognize the
group. For me "narcissuses" are "big" daffodils, and jonquils are
another flower altogether (go figger!). Daffodils and narcissuses
together are those big yaller and white early blooming critters, got
long narrer green leaves, etc...

dInIs

>Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>
>>  Hardly. A buttercup is a crowfoot, and, botanically, daffodils and
>>  jonquils are both narcissuses (or, for the high-falutin' narcissi,
>>  not -ae).
>>
>>  But I know lots of green-thumbers who will regularly refer to some
>>  plants as narcissuses and others (in contrast) as daffodils.
>
>Somehow it is ingrained in me that daffodils and jonquils are subsets of
>narcissi. Any bulb with a yellow bloom that has both "rays" and a "horn"
>(terminology of my own devising) is a narcissus. A narcissus whose bloom
>is uniformly bright yellow is a daffodil. A narcissus whose bloom has pale
>yellow "rays" and a darker/brighter yellow "horn" is a jonquil.
>
>And Dennis is in line with my thinking that a buttercup is a totally
>different flower from narcissus/daffodil/jonquil.
>
>    Snake

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736