In a message dated 10/2/2007 12:17:35 PM Central Daylight Time, b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ writes:
Matt Roth asks:

(Btw, has anyone ever pointed out that Toothwort--the plant--specifically feeds on Hazel roots? I have not found this noted anywhere in Boyd or elsewhere).

It is the Palearctic Toothwort, plants of the genus Lathraea, and not the quite unrelated North American Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata, syn. Dentaria lacinata) which parasitizes hazel roots. As Shade and Nabokov would know, the rather local Toothwort White butterfly could not feed on the flowers of this European family without crossing the Atlantic.

Brian Boyd



VN would have surely known this.  Would Shade have?  I wonder how much of his natural knowledge and "names of things" were picked up during his walks with Hertzler, the farmer.

Sam Gwynn

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