True, Sorcha, but of course it depends on whether you're talking about the periwinkle that's a snail or the periwinkle that's a flower. Trying to sort out the etymology of these terms is fascinating. Apparently in some locales the snail is called "pennywinkle", which is actually closer to the original Latin "pina", supposedly a word for a kind of mussel. The name for the flower, however, seems to come from "pervinca", which is said to be an abbreviation of the Latin "vincapervinca", a fascinating-sounding phrase which my dictionary doesn't further define. It's also been said to come from a Russian word that derives from the word for "first", since it's one of the first flowers in the spring. Sounds like we need somebody with Bruce O.'s detective skills here!

To creep some more, the flower periwinkle is the source of "vinca alkaloids", which are the basis for the anti-cancer drugs vincristine and vinblastine. Which of course gets us back to Max's virtual supercomputer to fight cancer (well, it's not really Max's but he started the Mudcat team, which all Mudcatters are cordially invited to join).

Aloha,
Mark