EMAIL name for proposed plant list

[Tony Travis]

karen at athena.cs.uga.edu (Karen Snetselaar) writes:
: In article <1992Mar13.193450.22148 at doc.ic.ac.uk> ajt at doc.ic.ac.uk (Tony Travis) writes:
: >: [...stuff deleted]
: >
: >The definition of 'botany' is: "the scientific study of plants" which
: >I think is general enough to please everyone.  I'm happy to accept a
: >majority vote on it though ...
: >
: >	Tony
: 
: I agree, "botany" is a perfectly good word; using it leaves no room
: for the kinds of misunderstandings that a couple people have mentioned 
: in reference to "plants".  I know it's a small point, but the previous
: discussion suggesting that "botany" somehow has come to evoke images
: of octogenarians with hand lenses and wildflower books makes me squirm.
: I'm a mycologist who specializes in plant parasitic fungi, but when a
: non-biologist like my Aunt Grace or the man who repairs my car wants
: a one-word description of my vocation, "botanist" is just right.  

I think we should have a choice of name in the vote, but I think the
creation of the group is more important than the name.

My own preference is for bionet.botany/BOTANY but the consensus is
bionet.plants/BIOPLANT and I can see that the 'image' the proposed
group presents may be an important factor in determining it's
acceptance by plant biologists at large.

I think that many people working in the field of plant biology actually
regard themselves as 'botanists' in a general sense, but they may
specialise in eg. plant physiology or plant pathology etc. and prefer
to be more specific in how they describe their interests.

	Tony
-- 
    Tony Travis <ajt at uk.ac.sari.rri>  | Dr. A.J.Travis 
                                      | Rowett Research Institute,
                                      | Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen,
                                      | AB2 9SB. UK. tel 0224-712751