Specimen Spotlight - Happy Holidays!

Digitizer Carolyn Thornton came across this fun specimen sheet while imaging Poaceae several months ago. The greeting card from 1942 includes a clipping of dried Vetiveria zizanioides, a fragrant grass that was commonly used with stored linens, along with a delightful poem: 

This is only a grass root tucked inside

Grown in the South, then washed and dried.

But it yields its fragrance as Vetiver should, 

A clean sweet odor like sandalwood.

This is only a faltering amateur rhyme

Mailed to our friends at Christmastime

But it carries a greeting, old fashioned,

sincere,

A Merry Christmas, a Happy

New Year.