A Secret, Tasteful, Beautiful, and Non-Polluting Source of Electrical Energy
by
David P. Shreve
Trivia Master
2003
Throughout history mankind has attempted to find the most appropriate and available sources for heating their huts, homes and palaces, for cooking, and for other heat-related needs, and, of course, for illumination so folks could stay up late into the night.
The burning of wood, coal, peat, and dried dung did a credible job once fire was discovered. In the Mid East olive oil became a wonderful resource in providing illuminiation using clay lamps. During the second centurey A.D. an attractive clay top was invented to be placed atop the open clay dish so oil would not spill out. "Could anything else of value be invented?" some surely mused.
Heating and cooking with firewood, dried dung, etc. produced black carbon that absorbed the sun's energy and accelerated the melting of snow and ice. The result was the raising of the ocean levels. After much burning and cooking approaching the year 500 AD we find that the ocean level and related seas were three feet higher than what we consider normal! (About 500 B.C. the ocean level and those of related seas was three feet lower than normal allowing the Phoenicians to harvest salt from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea for great profit.)
Surely the burning of villages and other exiciting events of empire expansion contributed to this global warming event causing this rise of ocean levels. Or could this have simply been the cyclic nature of the earth's surface.
Then it was found that whale oil would illuminate homes much better but without the sweet scent of olive oil. Olive oil did tend to make one sleepy--ask Eutychus of Troas next time you encounter him (Acts 20:7-12).
When oil was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania coal oil, or kerosene, became available for heating and for lamps. However, an explosive by-product, gasoline, was found troublesome and had to be disposed of very carefully. Much simply ran off into creeks, then to rivers, then to the shallow Chesapeake Bay or the deep Gulf of Mexico and was forgotten except by the blue crabs and oysters in the bay.
Today some are even preparing "corn squeezings," so to speak, to provide power to run our automobiles, farm tractors and other machines.
On and on went the search of a source of power for illumination, heat, and to provide power for our machines great and small. How foolish mankind has been. The source has been in flowerbeds for centuries. This has been known for millennia by a select few.
However, the seers, the alchemists, the magicians, politicians, candlestick makers and three men in a tub all knew of the power but feared that disclosing that source of power to the wrong persons could be disastrous to their respective countries should an enemy know of it.
The politicians also feared that their wealthy and powerful cronies, who put them in office and who keep them there, and who had financial interests in oil or coal, would no longer support them if they favored alternative sources of energy.
Today the press would have discovered and quickly disclosed the information citing their personal interpretation of the freedom of speech and of the press; the enemy would then know about it, develop it, and destroy us all. But not so during WW II. State secrets remained secret then. Those Americans were true patriots.
Elizabeth, the lovely daughter of the Swedish botanist, Carolus Linneaus, the "Father of Taxonomy," let the cat out of the bag. Elizabeth reported that during a still evening she could discern eerie electric rays emanating from nasturtiums in the family's gardens. Today much of the entire so-called civilized world know of this. There is no way we can hide this knowledge any longer.
Why does one suppose Monet's vast and varied gardens were so filled with beautiful cascading nasturtiums? Photographs and his paintings reveal this fact clearly. The nasturtiums on each side of his Grande Allee almost meet in the middle of that broad walk. The electrical power from those nasturrtiums provided heat for his greenhouses during the cold winter months. There can be no doubt.
If he have* used wood or coal, black dust would have covered his precious flowers and would have polluted his lovely and pristine ponds. His paintings of his brilliantly-arrayed gardens would not have the brilliance he wished.
Look carefully at the photos with a microscope or a jeweler's loupe and you may see the tiny copper wires among his naturtiums.
These are not the yellow-orange thread-like strands of the Custa pentagon (a parasitic weed dodder) as many may suggest. Monet would have had his gardners destroy such an invasive and strangling weed upon first perceiving them. These are indeed tiny copper wires we see. There can be no doubt.
Monet trained certain varieties of nasturtiums to climb up taller plants such as sunflowers. He trained the Empress of India variety to climb up tripods that were spaced evenly among the geraniums. His brilliant crimson perennial nasturtium (Tropaeolum specious) was, it is believed, the most electrifying of all.
These were all connected by tiny copper wires. Monet knew how to harness the power of the nasturtiums and keep his gardens and his laundry, hung on the outdoor line, spotless.
Today large coal industries continue destroying our nation's lovely mountain scenery, homes, towns, and wild life habitats of wild animals, birds and insects by mining the surfaces for coal to provide electricity and power. Dams have been built to provide electricity by inundating and destroying lovely small communities and farms all the while.
Man's thirst for electric power is affecting the world's climate--both the temperature and the weather. Besides the following projects there is the great expentiture of money to fund such projects.
First we find that the water in the Three Gorges Dam being built in China will add so much weight in that part of the country that, experts believe, it will cause the tilt of the earth to be affected imperceptibly, it has been reported. This will be affecting the weather and temperatures far into the future.
Then we find, off the English Channel, a very old French town named Saint-Male. Here, twice each day some of the world's highest tides, raising the sea level of the Rance as much as 44'! Here we find the home of a system of 24 uniquely designed turbines driven by both the incoming and outgoing tides. Each of the 24 turbines can supply the electrical needs of about 15,000 persons. together these 24 turbines would supply the needs of 360,000 persons.
The long range effect of this relates to the braking action on the tides by this turbine system which has inperceptibly slowed the earth's rate of revolution, scientists tell us.
With this slowing of the revolution of the earth the sun beats down upon the earth just a bit longer all over the earth than before the French built this unique source of electricity, heating the earth just a wee bit more each year.
Add to this the tilt of the earth relative to the weight of the water in the Three Gorges Dam we find possible catastrophic events of nature in the future.** The earth's axis completes one full cycle of precession approximately every 26,000 years. This could adversely affect the temperature of the earth's surface.
On mountain tops overlooking windy locations modernistic massive, sleek, glistening windmills are built along mountain tops at great expense to provide electricity for industries and homes, etc., killing any eagle that may attempt to fly by or through the space used by the blades. Local football games come to halt when the ball is inadvertently kicked into the blades found at the end of their field by a strong punter.
Enormous devices receiving solar energy from the sun, as the windmills, consume great amounts of natural resources and pollute the atmosphere in their manufacture. However, big business must make a great profit so these and other great projects are constructed at great expense.
The answer, as Elizabeth Linnaneus disclosed, to our age old dilemma is so simple that it will surely be bypassed for big business would not make wealth in this manner. It will be the humble gardener who will be the hero. The bottom line of big business is profit, we all know this. It is not patriotism, family or ethics. It is profit, clear and simple. Rather than clear the tops off of mountains, destroying landscapes in the process, or building nuclear power plants to go awry and produce nuclear waste to be dumped somewhere else, or leached into the oceans, but far from the homes of our Federal politicians, or massive dams to flood our land, or solar energy systems, or even windmills, simply cover the mountains and roof tops with colorful perennial nasturtiums.
Encourage botanists to cultivate more and larger perennial nasturtiums. Encourage them to cultivate more powerful nasturtiums that thrive in winter temperatures with larger leaves to absorb more sunlight to enhance their electrical power.
Let us cover our roofs with nasrtuiums. Let us cover the earth with nasturtiums. Carefully wire them together with very fine coper wires and attach the wires to all of our existing power grids. This is not simply a clean source of power but a beautiful and edible source as well. Have you tried a nasturtium blossom in a salad? Ah, the joy you have missed if you have not tried this tasty and colorful treat.
Connecting new and powerful ever-blooming nasturtiums with new and properly coordinated and maintained power grids will help us avoid such cascading failures as the one American's northeast experienced at 4:02 A.M., August 14, 2003.
However, this will probably never occur. Why? Opponents will include the large and powerful building trades that construct dams, or that design and assemble the massive equipment used to tear the tops off mountains for the coal found near the surface.
Negative-oriented church members will probably say, "We've never done it that way before."
The list can go on and on concerning the people whose very livelihoods and personal wealth and power are dependent upon the status quo. And we must remember our servants--our civil servants who tend to forget that they are our servants.
These, our Federal servants, who often comport themselves as if they are members of a House of Lords, will never allow the passage of any such energy reform bill. They must side with the powerful and wealthy men who keep them in office to do their bidding. They will laugh the idea to scorn. Anyone attempting to promote this clean, colorful and beautiful source of electricity will be laughed out of town. Or, if necessary, run out of town.
It is best if we just keep this knowledge to ourselves at present. Even the press fears reporting concerning this for they know that they would be laughed at and that they could not stand. They must be perceived a extremely serious concerning all such matters.
However, on a personal note, it is truly conforting to curl up with a good book on a cold winter night surrounded by your perenneal nasturtiums to keep you warm and provide illumination as Monet did. The crimson perennial nasturtium produces a nice, warm glow.
Warning: always remember to unplug your nasturtiums before you take a long trip---accidents can happen.
NOTES ON INTEREST TO SOME:
(The writer can not help continuing to write just as the preacher in Abraham Lincoln's story of the preacher who used to write long sermons did. "He got to writin' and was too lazy to stop" Lincoln said.)
Elizabeth Linnaeus was the daughter of Carl (Carlous) Linnaeus 1707-1778). Carl was a student of botany at Uppsala University in Sweden and became a botanist. Carl loved flowers as a child. It is written that, as an infant, he cried until given a flower wherupon he cooed. How sweet! How spoiled.
Carl von Linne, as Carolus was known after his ennoblement, was a botanist, physician and zoologist. Carolus is the one who developed the binomial nomenclature for classifying plants. He was sought out for lectures and thought of very highly by many great men of his time.
His father, who had no surname, developed one and Latinized it Linnaeus, for the giant linden tree found on their family lands. As was common in the day Carl Latinized his given name.
Visiting this ancient city of Uppsala one can still visit Carl Linnaeus' home and gardens. He no longer lives there nor works his gardens but he lives on the in taxonomy all over botanical world, and is considered the Father of Taxonomy.
Thanks to Carl if you see Queen Ann's lace you can call it by its binomial Daucus carota and impress all around you. From the root of this plant the carrots, that we eat today, were developed. Queen Ann followed William and Mary on the blood-stained English throne. Because she detested the scent of the manicured boxwood hedges William of Orange had had planted and pruned in such magical and creative shapes she had them removed and disposed of unceremoniously. So she has a weed named after her. Some prefer to refer to it as a flower or a wild flower.
If, in a conversation, you throw out the genus name Strelitzia among your haughty friends and they do not know what that is you can simply tell them that that is the genus of the bird of Paradise flower named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strreliz, who went to England to marry King George III. She is remembered by this lovely exotic-looking flower.
King George III was the king we Americans had our revolution with and who ended his life behind bars in his apartments at Windsor Castle with bouts of mental illness, went blind, wore a straightjacket and died. Porphyries, an inherited disease, was debilitating to him as well as to Queen Ann and other so-called royals. While King George III was suffering and dying Charlotte and her talented daughters simply continued to produce drawing after drawing of new and exciting plants as they were want to do.
And, if you dare, you can tell of Empress Josephine's gardens at Chateau Malmaison. She had procured a few of the very rare dahlias from Spain and proudly and arrogantly displayed them annually. All haughty and aristocratic ladies of the court wished to have such a rare flower but knew better.
One such lady successfully enticed a gardner to secretly pass some stolen tubers to her. The next year, when the foolish woman showed off her new dahlias, Empress Josephine, in a rage, had all hers dug up and disposed of and despised dahlias there after. The foolish woman was never invited to napoleon's chateau again, and the gardener had to find employment elsewhere---far, far away.
To think that some people think flowers are boring! If flowers could only talk..oh, the tales they could tell. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, tell of the origin of the lovely narcissus. He tells of liriope and others. Oh, the tales flowers could tell if given a voice. It is up to us to speak for them.
Although Carl Linnaeus is highly regarded, poor daughter Elizabeth is known by unflattering, "shocking" terms.
Prof. Olaf Rudbeck, then his son by the same name, were successive professors of botany at Uppsala University. Rudbeckia (black-eyed-Susan) was name for the elder Rudbeck.
The elder Rudbeck, surely known later as Rudy, Old Rude, or by other uncomplimentary terms, reported the results of his ersatz research that indicated that the Biblical Garden of Eden was in Sweden.
This made him famous for a while...but only in Sweden. But this all makes sense. Just look at the last four letters of the word Sweden. It is right there: Eden! There can be no doubt. Eden is right there in Sweden; at least it is in the English name of the country.
Further research told him that Lost Atlantis was part of Sweden, also. He truly was a chauvinist--Sweden first and last. Only Sweden. But then was up to Nicholas Chauvin to give us that word, chauvinism, that was based upon his excessive nationalistic favor under Napoleon. However, following Restoration France, he received only ridicule. His Sabre of Honor, given to him by Napoleon, was the only thing that gave him comfort.
No accolades for Prof. Rubeck's spurious research on the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden or of Lost Atlantis--no accolades, just a black eye--that is a flower with a black eye in the middle.
Don't just talk to your flower; listen to your flowers. They have much to share besides their fleeting beauty and scent. Never fuss at flowers; some have tender feelings and could simply wilt away.
NOTES
* The proper conjugation of the verb to have in the subjunctive mood. Rarely used today except by this writer and an unfortunate handful of others who still remember the old rules of grammar.
** These are man-made structures. There are other events of nature that affect our weather, climate, temperature, and ocean levels besides the hot air rising in the houses of congress. These include el nino and el nina as well as the Pacific decadal oscillations, the Atlantic multidecadal oscillations, and the brilliant solar flares. Never forget the potential of the sun's coronal mass ejections that could have a devastating effect on our earth's magnetic field that shields us from the unimaginable effects of the sun.
Then we find that the Milankovitch Theory plays significantily in variations of global climate, temperatures and weather. Since, in his theory, the earth's axis completes one full cycle of precession approximately every 26,000 years we'd best start counting the days today to be prepare for what this portends.
Finally we may wish to consider HAARP. This is the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program that many believe heats the upper levels of our earth's atmosphere.
Then we must balance all this with those German, then, Russian and other scientists who believe, since we have had the lowest solar activity in the last 100 years, that the earth has begun approaching another Little Ice Age. The last Little Ice Age was from 1550-1850 A.D. This writer's ancestors lived two miles from the Potomac River then and, in 1822, It was so cold so long that the Potomac River froze 2"-3" all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay. Continental Army ox carts crossed the river in 1799. Washington and his continental soldiers, including the writer's ancestor, Lt. Col. Samuel Shreve, were camped at Valley forge from 1999-1878.
Perhaps certain politicians will accumulate great wealth and notoriety by encouraging industy to heat up the atmostphere to avert such a freezing danger. They have already made millions suing corporations and countries whom they accuse of worsening global warming.
by
David P. Shreve
Trivia Master
2003
Throughout history mankind has attempted to find the most appropriate and available sources for heating their huts, homes and palaces, for cooking, and for other heat-related needs, and, of course, for illumination so folks could stay up late into the night.
The burning of wood, coal, peat, and dried dung did a credible job once fire was discovered. In the Mid East olive oil became a wonderful resource in providing illuminiation using clay lamps. During the second centurey A.D. an attractive clay top was invented to be placed atop the open clay dish so oil would not spill out. "Could anything else of value be invented?" some surely mused.
Heating and cooking with firewood, dried dung, etc. produced black carbon that absorbed the sun's energy and accelerated the melting of snow and ice. The result was the raising of the ocean levels. After much burning and cooking approaching the year 500 AD we find that the ocean level and related seas were three feet higher than what we consider normal! (About 500 B.C. the ocean level and those of related seas was three feet lower than normal allowing the Phoenicians to harvest salt from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea for great profit.)
Surely the burning of villages and other exiciting events of empire expansion contributed to this global warming event causing this rise of ocean levels. Or could this have simply been the cyclic nature of the earth's surface.
Then it was found that whale oil would illuminate homes much better but without the sweet scent of olive oil. Olive oil did tend to make one sleepy--ask Eutychus of Troas next time you encounter him (Acts 20:7-12).
When oil was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania coal oil, or kerosene, became available for heating and for lamps. However, an explosive by-product, gasoline, was found troublesome and had to be disposed of very carefully. Much simply ran off into creeks, then to rivers, then to the shallow Chesapeake Bay or the deep Gulf of Mexico and was forgotten except by the blue crabs and oysters in the bay.
Today some are even preparing "corn squeezings," so to speak, to provide power to run our automobiles, farm tractors and other machines.
On and on went the search of a source of power for illumination, heat, and to provide power for our machines great and small. How foolish mankind has been. The source has been in flowerbeds for centuries. This has been known for millennia by a select few.
However, the seers, the alchemists, the magicians, politicians, candlestick makers and three men in a tub all knew of the power but feared that disclosing that source of power to the wrong persons could be disastrous to their respective countries should an enemy know of it.
The politicians also feared that their wealthy and powerful cronies, who put them in office and who keep them there, and who had financial interests in oil or coal, would no longer support them if they favored alternative sources of energy.
Today the press would have discovered and quickly disclosed the information citing their personal interpretation of the freedom of speech and of the press; the enemy would then know about it, develop it, and destroy us all. But not so during WW II. State secrets remained secret then. Those Americans were true patriots.
Elizabeth, the lovely daughter of the Swedish botanist, Carolus Linneaus, the "Father of Taxonomy," let the cat out of the bag. Elizabeth reported that during a still evening she could discern eerie electric rays emanating from nasturtiums in the family's gardens. Today much of the entire so-called civilized world know of this. There is no way we can hide this knowledge any longer.
Why does one suppose Monet's vast and varied gardens were so filled with beautiful cascading nasturtiums? Photographs and his paintings reveal this fact clearly. The nasturtiums on each side of his Grande Allee almost meet in the middle of that broad walk. The electrical power from those nasturrtiums provided heat for his greenhouses during the cold winter months. There can be no doubt.
If he have* used wood or coal, black dust would have covered his precious flowers and would have polluted his lovely and pristine ponds. His paintings of his brilliantly-arrayed gardens would not have the brilliance he wished.
Look carefully at the photos with a microscope or a jeweler's loupe and you may see the tiny copper wires among his naturtiums.
These are not the yellow-orange thread-like strands of the Custa pentagon (a parasitic weed dodder) as many may suggest. Monet would have had his gardners destroy such an invasive and strangling weed upon first perceiving them. These are indeed tiny copper wires we see. There can be no doubt.
Monet trained certain varieties of nasturtiums to climb up taller plants such as sunflowers. He trained the Empress of India variety to climb up tripods that were spaced evenly among the geraniums. His brilliant crimson perennial nasturtium (Tropaeolum specious) was, it is believed, the most electrifying of all.
These were all connected by tiny copper wires. Monet knew how to harness the power of the nasturtiums and keep his gardens and his laundry, hung on the outdoor line, spotless.
Today large coal industries continue destroying our nation's lovely mountain scenery, homes, towns, and wild life habitats of wild animals, birds and insects by mining the surfaces for coal to provide electricity and power. Dams have been built to provide electricity by inundating and destroying lovely small communities and farms all the while.
Man's thirst for electric power is affecting the world's climate--both the temperature and the weather. Besides the following projects there is the great expentiture of money to fund such projects.
First we find that the water in the Three Gorges Dam being built in China will add so much weight in that part of the country that, experts believe, it will cause the tilt of the earth to be affected imperceptibly, it has been reported. This will be affecting the weather and temperatures far into the future.
Then we find, off the English Channel, a very old French town named Saint-Male. Here, twice each day some of the world's highest tides, raising the sea level of the Rance as much as 44'! Here we find the home of a system of 24 uniquely designed turbines driven by both the incoming and outgoing tides. Each of the 24 turbines can supply the electrical needs of about 15,000 persons. together these 24 turbines would supply the needs of 360,000 persons.
The long range effect of this relates to the braking action on the tides by this turbine system which has inperceptibly slowed the earth's rate of revolution, scientists tell us.
With this slowing of the revolution of the earth the sun beats down upon the earth just a bit longer all over the earth than before the French built this unique source of electricity, heating the earth just a wee bit more each year.
Add to this the tilt of the earth relative to the weight of the water in the Three Gorges Dam we find possible catastrophic events of nature in the future.** The earth's axis completes one full cycle of precession approximately every 26,000 years. This could adversely affect the temperature of the earth's surface.
On mountain tops overlooking windy locations modernistic massive, sleek, glistening windmills are built along mountain tops at great expense to provide electricity for industries and homes, etc., killing any eagle that may attempt to fly by or through the space used by the blades. Local football games come to halt when the ball is inadvertently kicked into the blades found at the end of their field by a strong punter.
Enormous devices receiving solar energy from the sun, as the windmills, consume great amounts of natural resources and pollute the atmosphere in their manufacture. However, big business must make a great profit so these and other great projects are constructed at great expense.
The answer, as Elizabeth Linnaneus disclosed, to our age old dilemma is so simple that it will surely be bypassed for big business would not make wealth in this manner. It will be the humble gardener who will be the hero. The bottom line of big business is profit, we all know this. It is not patriotism, family or ethics. It is profit, clear and simple. Rather than clear the tops off of mountains, destroying landscapes in the process, or building nuclear power plants to go awry and produce nuclear waste to be dumped somewhere else, or leached into the oceans, but far from the homes of our Federal politicians, or massive dams to flood our land, or solar energy systems, or even windmills, simply cover the mountains and roof tops with colorful perennial nasturtiums.
Encourage botanists to cultivate more and larger perennial nasturtiums. Encourage them to cultivate more powerful nasturtiums that thrive in winter temperatures with larger leaves to absorb more sunlight to enhance their electrical power.
Let us cover our roofs with nasrtuiums. Let us cover the earth with nasturtiums. Carefully wire them together with very fine coper wires and attach the wires to all of our existing power grids. This is not simply a clean source of power but a beautiful and edible source as well. Have you tried a nasturtium blossom in a salad? Ah, the joy you have missed if you have not tried this tasty and colorful treat.
Connecting new and powerful ever-blooming nasturtiums with new and properly coordinated and maintained power grids will help us avoid such cascading failures as the one American's northeast experienced at 4:02 A.M., August 14, 2003.
However, this will probably never occur. Why? Opponents will include the large and powerful building trades that construct dams, or that design and assemble the massive equipment used to tear the tops off mountains for the coal found near the surface.
Negative-oriented church members will probably say, "We've never done it that way before."
The list can go on and on concerning the people whose very livelihoods and personal wealth and power are dependent upon the status quo. And we must remember our servants--our civil servants who tend to forget that they are our servants.
These, our Federal servants, who often comport themselves as if they are members of a House of Lords, will never allow the passage of any such energy reform bill. They must side with the powerful and wealthy men who keep them in office to do their bidding. They will laugh the idea to scorn. Anyone attempting to promote this clean, colorful and beautiful source of electricity will be laughed out of town. Or, if necessary, run out of town.
It is best if we just keep this knowledge to ourselves at present. Even the press fears reporting concerning this for they know that they would be laughed at and that they could not stand. They must be perceived a extremely serious concerning all such matters.
However, on a personal note, it is truly conforting to curl up with a good book on a cold winter night surrounded by your perenneal nasturtiums to keep you warm and provide illumination as Monet did. The crimson perennial nasturtium produces a nice, warm glow.
Warning: always remember to unplug your nasturtiums before you take a long trip---accidents can happen.
NOTES ON INTEREST TO SOME:
(The writer can not help continuing to write just as the preacher in Abraham Lincoln's story of the preacher who used to write long sermons did. "He got to writin' and was too lazy to stop" Lincoln said.)
Elizabeth Linnaeus was the daughter of Carl (Carlous) Linnaeus 1707-1778). Carl was a student of botany at Uppsala University in Sweden and became a botanist. Carl loved flowers as a child. It is written that, as an infant, he cried until given a flower wherupon he cooed. How sweet! How spoiled.
Carl von Linne, as Carolus was known after his ennoblement, was a botanist, physician and zoologist. Carolus is the one who developed the binomial nomenclature for classifying plants. He was sought out for lectures and thought of very highly by many great men of his time.
His father, who had no surname, developed one and Latinized it Linnaeus, for the giant linden tree found on their family lands. As was common in the day Carl Latinized his given name.
Visiting this ancient city of Uppsala one can still visit Carl Linnaeus' home and gardens. He no longer lives there nor works his gardens but he lives on the in taxonomy all over botanical world, and is considered the Father of Taxonomy.
Thanks to Carl if you see Queen Ann's lace you can call it by its binomial Daucus carota and impress all around you. From the root of this plant the carrots, that we eat today, were developed. Queen Ann followed William and Mary on the blood-stained English throne. Because she detested the scent of the manicured boxwood hedges William of Orange had had planted and pruned in such magical and creative shapes she had them removed and disposed of unceremoniously. So she has a weed named after her. Some prefer to refer to it as a flower or a wild flower.
If, in a conversation, you throw out the genus name Strelitzia among your haughty friends and they do not know what that is you can simply tell them that that is the genus of the bird of Paradise flower named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strreliz, who went to England to marry King George III. She is remembered by this lovely exotic-looking flower.
King George III was the king we Americans had our revolution with and who ended his life behind bars in his apartments at Windsor Castle with bouts of mental illness, went blind, wore a straightjacket and died. Porphyries, an inherited disease, was debilitating to him as well as to Queen Ann and other so-called royals. While King George III was suffering and dying Charlotte and her talented daughters simply continued to produce drawing after drawing of new and exciting plants as they were want to do.
And, if you dare, you can tell of Empress Josephine's gardens at Chateau Malmaison. She had procured a few of the very rare dahlias from Spain and proudly and arrogantly displayed them annually. All haughty and aristocratic ladies of the court wished to have such a rare flower but knew better.
One such lady successfully enticed a gardner to secretly pass some stolen tubers to her. The next year, when the foolish woman showed off her new dahlias, Empress Josephine, in a rage, had all hers dug up and disposed of and despised dahlias there after. The foolish woman was never invited to napoleon's chateau again, and the gardener had to find employment elsewhere---far, far away.
To think that some people think flowers are boring! If flowers could only talk..oh, the tales they could tell. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, tell of the origin of the lovely narcissus. He tells of liriope and others. Oh, the tales flowers could tell if given a voice. It is up to us to speak for them.
Although Carl Linnaeus is highly regarded, poor daughter Elizabeth is known by unflattering, "shocking" terms.
Prof. Olaf Rudbeck, then his son by the same name, were successive professors of botany at Uppsala University. Rudbeckia (black-eyed-Susan) was name for the elder Rudbeck.
The elder Rudbeck, surely known later as Rudy, Old Rude, or by other uncomplimentary terms, reported the results of his ersatz research that indicated that the Biblical Garden of Eden was in Sweden.
This made him famous for a while...but only in Sweden. But this all makes sense. Just look at the last four letters of the word Sweden. It is right there: Eden! There can be no doubt. Eden is right there in Sweden; at least it is in the English name of the country.
Further research told him that Lost Atlantis was part of Sweden, also. He truly was a chauvinist--Sweden first and last. Only Sweden. But then was up to Nicholas Chauvin to give us that word, chauvinism, that was based upon his excessive nationalistic favor under Napoleon. However, following Restoration France, he received only ridicule. His Sabre of Honor, given to him by Napoleon, was the only thing that gave him comfort.
No accolades for Prof. Rubeck's spurious research on the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden or of Lost Atlantis--no accolades, just a black eye--that is a flower with a black eye in the middle.
Don't just talk to your flower; listen to your flowers. They have much to share besides their fleeting beauty and scent. Never fuss at flowers; some have tender feelings and could simply wilt away.
NOTES
* The proper conjugation of the verb to have in the subjunctive mood. Rarely used today except by this writer and an unfortunate handful of others who still remember the old rules of grammar.
** These are man-made structures. There are other events of nature that affect our weather, climate, temperature, and ocean levels besides the hot air rising in the houses of congress. These include el nino and el nina as well as the Pacific decadal oscillations, the Atlantic multidecadal oscillations, and the brilliant solar flares. Never forget the potential of the sun's coronal mass ejections that could have a devastating effect on our earth's magnetic field that shields us from the unimaginable effects of the sun.
Then we find that the Milankovitch Theory plays significantily in variations of global climate, temperatures and weather. Since, in his theory, the earth's axis completes one full cycle of precession approximately every 26,000 years we'd best start counting the days today to be prepare for what this portends.
Finally we may wish to consider HAARP. This is the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program that many believe heats the upper levels of our earth's atmosphere.
Then we must balance all this with those German, then, Russian and other scientists who believe, since we have had the lowest solar activity in the last 100 years, that the earth has begun approaching another Little Ice Age. The last Little Ice Age was from 1550-1850 A.D. This writer's ancestors lived two miles from the Potomac River then and, in 1822, It was so cold so long that the Potomac River froze 2"-3" all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay. Continental Army ox carts crossed the river in 1799. Washington and his continental soldiers, including the writer's ancestor, Lt. Col. Samuel Shreve, were camped at Valley forge from 1999-1878.
Perhaps certain politicians will accumulate great wealth and notoriety by encouraging industy to heat up the atmostphere to avert such a freezing danger. They have already made millions suing corporations and countries whom they accuse of worsening global warming.
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