‘Goo…”Jonathan Hemlock” the assassin? Ok, that’s rich.

Navajo saying about Datura: “Eat a little, and go to sleep. Eat some more, and have a dream. Eat some more, and don’t wake up.”

If you want to read Trevanian, try Shibumi or Hot Night in the City. The Basque short stories are absolutely hilarious.

In Eiger Sanction the assassin Johnathan Hemlock arranges for some Datura seeds to be processed to taint some wine given to an enemy. The enemy was described as spending the rest of his life in an asylum staring into space and humming the same single tone all day long.

Neal Stephenson writes in the Baroque Cycle, of an assassin that paints his blades with nicotine, and if it is a true description… oh that’s nasty stuff.

I got really interested in plants in general McGoo, and it is frightening how many common plants can kill or make you really sick. The list is longer than the list of good things (nearly). Enough to really freak a parent out if they want to indulge in torturing themselves silly with worry.

Was the Eiger Sanction worth running down and reading?

Systematists are the extreme OCD types in the biology field, but it’s an interesting study. Most classifications were done by visual examination and grouping by an amateur “expert” naturalist in that area/group. Current classifications are typically based on mtDNA, protein, or other genetic analysis in addition to examining the species prior designation.

I read about that stuff in a Trevanian novel – Eiger Sanction, I think. I have always kept it in mind in case I really wanted to take revenge on someone. A sufficiently serious opportunity has not occurred yet. But when it does, Steamboat McGoo De’ Medici will surge into action!

Yep, Badger, on both counts. The original taxonomy was done on the basis of eyeball- and, later, microscopic- observation of species. But Nature often tossed in ringers. These were only found out (for the most part) when DNA testing was done.

Traditional Linean taxonomy (on which the current relationships are based) could only have been done by appearance and, surely, that can’t be right?

As for Gibby’s point about leaving it alone – no chance of that, I’m afraid! Bloody plant names are changing all the time, anyway. I can think of a few that have changed twice in my gardening lifetime.

Just sayin’.

The second issue is that the system works so darned well even with the wrinkles that there is little inclination to change it. There is also “generational” inertia, i.e. the old farts don’t want changes. I can understand that.