Jacket Conversion

[Jere Mac]

Mike:
Thanks for the note. Some politicians and others in North Carolina refer to Charlotte and Mecklenburg county as The Great State of Mecklenburg. Mecklenburg county is the most populous county in the stater and I'm guessing that the politicos in our state capital, Raleigh, coined the term when dividing up the "pork" one fiscal year.
The county was named in 1762 after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of George III of England. The royal couple had never met prior to their marriage. I understand that George's mother had a lot to do with the union. Some things never change?
Thanks again and best regards from Charlotte, The Great State of Mecklenburg and North Carolina.
Jere

[Mike_Oettle]

Interesting connection, Jere. We have a flower that grows wild in this part of the world that was named for Queen Charlotte.
It is cultivated around the world these days, and it has even been adopted as a symbol of Los Angeles, but its natural range is entirely South African.
The botanical name is Strelitzia reginæ. The reginæ bit refers to Charlotte as Queen, while the generic name comes from her father’s capital, the city of Strelitz in Mecklenburg.
(Nowadays Strelitz is part of Brandenburg, thanks to a reorganisation carried out by the Soviet occupation government in the early 1950s.)
The type species, S reginæ, is also known as the crane flower or the bird of paradise flower, and its natural range is along the Eastern Cape coast from Humansdorp (half an hour’s drive west of Port Elizabeth, where I live) to Pondoland, on the Natal border.
It skips Natal proper (the old colony) and is then also found on the coast of Zululand.
There is a colour variant with yellow in the flower, rather than orange. There is also a variant in which the leaves never open fully, but resemble spears. That one is unique to the Port Elizabeth district.
There is a much taller species, S nicolai, also called the Natal wild banana (it has a superficial resemblance to a banana tree) which is quite different in the colouring of its flowers.
I have designed tartans based on their colours which can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/mike.oettle#...&ref=fbx_album
http://www.facebook.com/mike.oettle#...&ref=fbx_album
and http://www.facebook.com/mike.oettle#...&ref=fbx_album
Regards,
Mike

[Jere Mac]

Queen Charlotte lives on! I'm quite certain she is beaming with pride as we correspond.
All the best,
Jere