Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian Lily, is a South American genus of about 50 species of flowering plants. Almost all of the species are restricted to one of two distinct centers of diversity, one in central Chile, the other in eastern Brazil. All are long-lived perennials.

The plants are distinctive vegetatively, with a rootstock consisting of a slender rhizome. Storage roots consist of sausage-like water storing structures suspended from the rhizome by major roots. Each year up to 80 new shoots are produced from the rootstock and each terminates in up to 10 or so flowers.

An interesting morphological trait of Alstroemeria and its relatives is the fact that the leaves are resupinate, that is, they twist from the base so that what appears to be the upper leaf surface is in fact the lower leaf surface. This very unusual botanical feature is easily observed in the leaves on cut flowers from the florist.

The most popular hybrids commonly grown today result from crosses between species from Chile (winter-growing) with species from Brazil (summer-growing). This strategy has overcome the problem of seasonal dormancy and resulted in plants that are evergreen and flower for most of the year.

A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymathic person may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable. Most ancient scientists were polymaths by today’s standards.

The term Renaissance man is used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields. This idea developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti that “a man can do all things if he will.” It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance Humanism which considered man empowered, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. Thus the gifted men of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments and in the arts.

Since it is considered extremely difficult to genuinely acquire an encyclopaedic knowledge, and even more to be proficient in several fields at the level of an expert, not to mention to achieve excellence or recognition in multiple fields, the word polymath may also be used with a potentially negative connotation as well. Under this connotation, by sacrificing depth for breadth, the polymath becomes a “jack of all trades, master of none”. For many specialists, in the context of today’s hyperspecialization, the ideal of a Renaissance man is judged to be an anachronism, since it is not uncommon that a specialist can barely dominate the accumulated knowledge of more than just one restricted subfield in his whole life, and many renowned experts have been made famous only for dominating different subfields or traditions or for being able to integrate the knowledge of different subfields or traditions.

Today, expertise is often associated with documents, certifications, diplomas, and degrees attributing to such, and a person who seems to have an abundance of these is often perceived as having more education than practical working experience. Autodidactic polymaths often combine didactic education and expertise in multiple fields with autodidactic research and experience to create the Renaissance ideal.

Many fields of interest take years of singleminded devotion to achieve expertise, often requiring starting at an early age. Also, many require cultural familiarity that may be inaccessible to someone not born and raised in that culture. In many such cases, it is realistically possible to achieve only knowledge of theory, without practical experience. For example, on a safari, a jungle native will be a more effective guide than a scientist who may be educated in the theories of jungle survival but did not grow up acquiring his knowledge firsthand.

However, those supporting the ideal of the Renaissance man today would say that the specialist’s understanding of the interrelation of knowledge from different fields is too narrow and that a synthetic comprehension of different fields is unavailable to him, or, if they embrace the Renaissance ideal even more deeply, that the human development of the specialist is truncated by the narrowness of his view. What is much more common today than the universal approach to knowledge from a single polymath, is the multidisciplinary approach to knowledge which derives from several experts from different fields collaborating together.

Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as scented geraniums. They have a long history of use, although more for decorative purposes than for culinary use. From their native South Africa they were brought to England in the early 1600′s by John Tradescent, botanist for Charles the First of England. The plant he brought back was Pelargonium triste, one of the few scented geraniums with fragrant blossoms.

Scented geraniums were soon cultivated in the warm coastal regions of France and Spain, as well as Algeria and the coast of what was the Belgian Congo. The colonists brought scented geraniums with them to the new world. Even Thomas Jefferson grew them in his gardens at the White House.

Growing scented geraniums became a popular pastime of the people in Victorian England, where they would raise them in heated greenhouses. This trend continued until 1914 when fuel to heat the green houses was banned due to the war.

Today scented geraniums continue to be used in the making of perfumes. Synthetic rose oil is made using rose scented geraniums. The dried leaves are also used in sachets and potpourri. In aromatherapy rose scented geranium is used for facial steams as it is reputed to have anti-aging effects on the skin. It is also reputed to ease insomnia and have an antidepressant effect.

An aromatic, rose-scented herb, the whole plant has relaxant, anti-depressant and antiseptic effects, reduces inflammation and controls bleeding. All parts of the plant are astringent. It is used internally for nausea, tonsillitis and poor circulation. Externally, it is used to treat acne, haemorrhoids, eczema, bruises, ringworm and lice. The leaves can be used fresh at any time of the year. 

There is a great diversity among the varieties themselves, in the shape of their leaves, the color of their blossoms, blooming time, and intensity of their fragrances. One of the rose scented geraniums has a large, lacy snowflake leaf pattern. Another favorite is lime scented geranium. It has very tiny leaves, shaped like curly maple. Their fragrance is sharp and undeniably citrus. An added benefit of the citrus scented geraniums is that they contain citronella, a known mosquito repellent.

Scented geraniums have been developed in an enormous number of varieties including Coconut, Apple Cider, Lemon Meringue, Apricot, Strawberry and Chocolate Mint.

An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent ecological communities or ecosystems. It may appear on the ground as a gradual blending of the two communities across a broad area, or it may manifest itself as a sharp boundary line. The word was coined from a combination of eco(logy) plus -tone, from the Greek tonos or tension – in other words, a place where ecologies are in tension.

Changes in the physical environment may produce a sharp boundary, as in the example of the interface between areas of forest and cleared land. Elsewhere, a more gradually blended interface area will be found, where species from each community will be found together as well as unique local species. Mountain ranges often create such ecotones, due to the wide variety of climatic conditions experienced on their slopes. They may also provide a boundary between species due to the obstructive nature of their terrain. Mont Ventoux in France is a good example, marking the boundary between the flora and fauna of northern and southern France. Most wetlands are ecotones.

Ecotones are particularly significant for mobile animals, as they can exploit more than one set of habitats within a short distance. This can produce an edge effect along the boundary line, with the area displaying a greater than usual diversity of species. The phenomenon of increased variety of plants as well as animals at the community junction is called the Edge effect and is essentially due to a locally broader range of suitable environmental conditions or ecological niches.

South African botanist and zoologist John Duncan emphasises how ecotones are much loved niches within the environment.

The evolution of complexity is an important outcome of the process of evolution. Evolution has produced some remarkably complex organisms, although the actual level of complexity is very hard to define or measure accurately in biology, with properties such as gene content, the number of cell types or morphology all being used to assess an organism’s complexity.

This observation that complex organisms can be produced from simpler ones has led to the common misperception of evolution being progressive and having a direction that leads towards what are viewed as higher organisms.

In the 19th century, some scientists believed that all Nature had an innate striving to become more complex with evolution. This belief may reflect then-current ideas that all creation was gradually evolving to a higher, more perfect state.

According to this view, the evolution of parasites from a basic organism to parasite was seen as “devolution” and contrary to nature. This view has sometimes been used metaphorically by social theorists and propagandists to decry a class of people as degenerate parasites. Today, “devolution” is regarded as nonsense; rather, lineages will become simpler or more complicated according to whatever forms have a selective advantage.

Organisms that reproduce more quickly and plentifully than their competitors have an evolutionary advantage. Consequently, organisms can evolve to become simpler and thus multiply faster and produce more offspring, as they require fewer resources to reproduce. A good example are parasites such as malaria and mycoplasma, These organisms often dispense with traits that are made unnecessary through parasitism on a host.

However, evolution can also produce more complex organisms. Complexity often arises in the co-evolution of hosts and pathogens, with each side developing ever more sophisticated adaptations, such as the immune system and the many techniques pathogens have developed to evade it. 

More generally, the growth of complexity may be driven by the co-evolution between an organism and the ecosystem of predators, prey and parasites to which it tries to stay adapted. Any of these become more complex in order to cope better with the diversity of threats offered by the ecosystem formed by the others, the others will also have to adapt by becoming more complex, thus triggering an on-going evolutionary arms race towards more complexity. This trend may be reinforced by the fact that ecosystems themselves tend to become more complex over time as species diversity increases, together with the linkages or dependencies between species.

Sweet potatoes are native to tropical areas of South America and were domesticated there at least 5000 years ago. They spread very early throughout the region, including the Caribbean. They were also known before western exploration in Polynesia. Exactly how they arrived there is a subject of ongoing research and discussion of various hypotheses involving archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence.

It has been postulated that the centre of origin was between the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. The cultigen had most likely been spread by local people to South America by 2500 BC. The much lower molecular diversity found in the Peru-Ecuador species suggests that this region should be considered as a secondary centre of sweet potato diversity.

Sweet potatoes are now cultivated throughout tropical and warm temperate regions wherever there is sufficient water to support their growth. The plant does not tolerate frost.

Sometimes called a yam, the sweet potato is not in the yam family, nor it closely related to the common potato. The first Europeans to taste sweet potatoes were members of the Columbus expedition in 1492. Later explorers found many varieties under an assortment of local names, but the name which stayed was the indigenous Taino name of batata. This name was later transferred to the ordinary potato, causing a confusion from which it never recovered.

They grow well in many farming conditions and have few natural enemies. Pesticides are rarely needed. They can be grown in poor soils with little fertilizer. Because they are sown by vine cuttings rather than seeds, sweet potatoes are relatively easy to plant. Because the rapidly growing vines shade out weeds, little weeding is needed and farmers can devote time to other crops. In the tropics the crop can be maintained in the ground and harvested as needed for market or home consumption.

After harvesting, the sweet potatoes are dried in the sun for 2 to 3 hours. Then they are spread out in baskets lined with newspaper and placed in a dry area where the temperature will remain 80-85 degrees F. for 10 days to 2 weeks. After this curing period, they are placed where the temperature will range from 55-60 degrees F. with a relative humidity of about 85 percent. Sweet potatoes treated this way will store for several months.

In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables. Considering fiber content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value. According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato.