I was reading Valerie Easton's article on hedges in the Pacific Northwest magazine (Plant Life, March 9). As I was admiring the picture of the European hornbeams, I tried to think where I could fit them in my overstuffed yard. I continued to read and wondered if the existing shrubs I had for a hedge were a suitable choice.

After all, I liked them, they were private, and my husband had forgiven me for ripping up the yard and planting the 20 or so 1-gallon plants while he was working in Alaska. I told him I had a vision that they would grow tall, give our corner lot some privacy, and then we could take out the 40-foot holly trees plastered against the house. Well, the hedge has grown and the trees are gone, and I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as I came to the end of the article. You see, we live in Wallingford on that corner. You have described our hedge perfectly. Our hedge grew that high in six to seven years and filled in nicely.

Thanks for the super compliment!

— Patty Shanks-Dizard,
Seattle

Paula Bock wrote a comprehensive, well-composed story about Naomi Adrade Smith and her cooking ("Feeding Memories," Feb. 9) which I enjoyed reading very much. However, I feel it important to correct a misconception, if not downright error, in your story. Whatever other new things Marco Polo introduced to his medieval Italian state when he returned from China, noodles were not one of them. I quote "The Complete Book of Pasta" by Jack Denton Scott:

"Italians do not hold grand opera in higher regard than they do their national dish. They have even raised a museum in its honor . . . Called the Museo Storico degli Spaghetti . . . A few of the facts I discovered: pasta was not brought back to Italy, for ravioli was being eaten in Rome in 1284, almost 20 years before Marco Polo's famous travels."

I further quote "Pomp and Sustenance: 25 Centuries of Sicilian Food" by Mary Taylor Simeti:

"Historians have as yet been unable to pinpoint the moment in Italian history when pasta asciutta — as we think of it the heaping dish of spaghetti or fettuccine crowned with sauce and cheese — was born. There is good reason to believe, however, that it all began in Arab Sicily . . . In Italy the earliest mention of pasta's being produced on a commercial scale comes from a survey of Sicily written by an Arabic geographer at the request of the Norman King Roger II" (written the year 1150).

Simeti also says, "While in Greece and in many other parts of the world, barley, millet, and other lesser grains predominated, Sicily's soil and climate were particularly suited to the cultivation of hard-grained durum wheat. It was durum wheat, therefore, that supplied the basis of the Sicilian classical diet . . ." (By classical she indicates Greek and Roman)

So with documented proof that Italians and Sicilians were eating pasta long before Marco Polo, it is only an unwarranted assumption that he "introduced" noodles to Italy. (He may well have brought Chinese-style noodles back with him, but they were not new to the Italians.)

Thank you for letting me set the record straight. I own both of the books quoted, if more bibliographic information would be helpful.