The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Perennials => Topic started by: John on September 26, 2011, 07:34:03 PM
-
This is a lovely Mediterranean fern which is incredibly common hanging on in the most unlikely places as long as there is enough moisture. Here's a picture of it looking quite natural and could be in any cave entrance but the second picture reveals that it is growing in a man made structure built into the side of the hill on the Cornish side of the river Tamar below the gardens of Cotele which apparently was the first national Trust porperty. I believe it is a British native as well!
-
John, You managed to put this topic on twice ??? so I've chopped out the twin.
Yes, a lovely fern, and so much tougher than it looks!
-
Well that's this forum for you. Thanks.
-
I've seen some lovely specimens in the Avgas Gorge in western Cyprus. (yes, Avgas, can be spelled multiple ways)
-
Does that mean gorge of the eggs?
-
I can't deny that translation, John.
It can also be spelled Avakas.
I can't think of connection with eggs, apart from the gorge being like a crack in an eggshell.
-
Mike, your spelling is a new one to me, I've always known it as the Avakas Gorge although it has occasionally been transliterated as Avagas. This is a constant problem when converting Greek to English. Several years ago they changed all the road signs that had been in use for decades because they thought our European visitors would find them easier to pronounce. For example Paphos became Pafos. Fair enough I see the reasoning behind that. However, how can something like Yermosoya (pronounced just as it looks) be improved by changing it to Germosogeia? Also all the saints suddenly turned from being Ayia/Ayios (again pronounced as seen) and became Agia/Agios.
Nice try, John, but I don't think it will stand up to scrutiny. It's named after the river Avakas that cut it.
-
I didn't think it would be "Egg gorge". In eastern Crete there is the Havgas gorge.
-
JohnJ,
I would not normally be picky on this, but I have to comment that the gorge being called the same as the river is a bit of a chicken and egg situation :)
Sometimes what I do in these situations (multiple possible spellings) is to compare hits on a Google search. In this case:
- Avgas gorge: 340,000
- Avagas gorge: 8,620
- Avakas gorge: 11,000
- Avkas gorge: 2,410
- Avgas river: 361,000
- Avagas river: 803,000
- Avakas river: 17,500
- Avkas river: 1,020
Obviously, it is very crude, and prone to various sorts of errors depending on your search terms, but sometimes it is better than nothing.
In this case, it suggests Avgas or Avagas is more commonly used than the others. But for some years, I (like you) had thought Avakas was correct.
-
In situations like that, I'd always take the knowledge and word of the two people on the spot who've known the place for years - in this case, John and Mike - against 803,000 Google references! The ease of googling things so often stands in the way of that sort of real knowledge. :) :)
-
Oh dear what have I started!!!!!
-
Actually, Mike, I guess if we took it to the logical conclusion there is no correct way of spelling it in English as all spellings are someone's idea of how it should be transliterated from Greek. Possibly the only really correct spelling is Φαραγγι του Αβακα.
-
Well said John!
-
Hilary
Do you know what άβακας means?
Husband
Yes it's the thing the Chinese count on
The Greek dictionary gives another two meanings of the word.
Nothing to do with plants but I did enjoy the discussion