ANNUAL APPETITES, OR LIFE AT THE DEW DROP INN

摘要

Dorotheanthus rourkei is currently forming two dozen fruits, arid lovely fruits they are, like a wide-armed starfish with the inner filamentary lifts of an umbrella. They should yield plenty of seeds for MSG. But meanwhile I've had the fantasy of "infusing" the glorious rourkei pigments into a longer-lasting, more nearly permanent species. That probably sounds daft, like inserting flounder genes into a tomato plant, and reminds me of Jan Vermeer, who also yearned for the permanence of pigment-fixation. Think of him grinding bits of red carnelian into a viscous oil base.