Re: Thingygamous

From: TTrotsky_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 17:56:07 EDT


Alex:

<< > I suppose those 'hermaphrodite' blue elves might really be isogamous*,
since (again, IIRC) its quite common with seaweed.

  > * not that I really think they are; this is just a desperate attempt to make the post seem even vaguely on-topic.

  Why does this not seem likely? One species of blue elf is single-sex, after all. >>

      It's certainly possible, although not quite the interpretation I make of their description as 'hermaphrodites'.

<< > Closest anthropological term I could find is 'homogamous'

  I thought _that_ was a botanical term too...>>

      It is, but its also an anthropological one. Botanically it means 'a hermaphrodite in which the male and female sexual organs reach maturation at the same time'. An awful lot of plants are hermaphrodites, (most flowers have both stigmas and stamens, after all), so botanists like to come up with finer distinctions like this. This doesn't seem to have any parallel with the decidedly dioecious elves, although runners might be a different matter...

Forward the glorious Red Army!

     Trotsky


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