April 26, 2008 12:00 am
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We enjoy so much The Free Press and Garrison Keillor’s column. But this morning (April 17) I almost spilled my coffee as I glanced at Garrison’s entertaining article, almost expecting to see the ghost of A.A.M. Pushkin over my shoulder.
Quoting from the Royal Hort. Soc. Dictionary of Gardening, Vol. 3, Stockton Press, 1992:
Puschkinia (in horticultural Latin extra letters are sometimes added) Adams (for count Apollo Apollosovich Mussin-Pushkin, who died 1805), Russian chemist who collected plants in the Caucasus and Ararat — Liliaceae (hyacinthaceae). Flower pale blue with darker stripes USSR Caucasus.
Alexander Pushkin, the poet and dramatist, would have only been a small boy if he ever met with Pushkin the botanist, for whom the lovely little plants are named.
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