THE CASS LABORATORY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18342, 27 March 1925, Page 14

THE CASS LABORATORY.

GREAT POSSIBILITIES.

DR. LOTSY'S OPINION*. The eminent scientist, Dr. J. P. Lotsy, who is at present in. Christchurch. paid a visit to the Canterbury College Biological Laboratory in the Cass Valley during the past few days. In the course of an interview yesterday. Dr. Lotsy dealt with the possibilities of the work which could be done at this laboratory. "When I was there," he said, "my thoughts went back many years to the time when I lived in .Java, and to the laboratory of Tjibodas. now known all the world over, which began in just such a modest way as the C'ass Laboratory. In their situation, both these laboratories have much in commonj both are near to virgin vegetation, both, also, find themselves placed in districts of great variety, because the country around them is mountainous, so that it is possible within a day to pass from the luxurious vegetation of the lower regions to the Alpine flora of the mountain tops. "The Cass Laboratory has an advantage which that of Tjibodas lacks; it is easily accessible, and it has behind it the institutes and staff of Canterbury College. It is, therefore, in a position to undertake a special kind of advanced investigation, which, in time, would make its name as well known as that of Tjibodas. This could be done in many ways, the opportunities for research at the Cass being unlimited. Perhaps I may be allowed to suggest, one, in the development of which I would be especially interested. Numbering Trees. "When—many years ago —a closer investigation of the flora of Java, especially of its trees, became desirable, the late Dr. Koorders, of the Java Forest Service, had the happ.f idea of labelling trees, that is, of numbering certain trees in the forest reservations, and having roads cut to them, so that they could, in the tangled tropical wood, be easily reached. This was done for the purpose oi being able to collect at all times material for investigation from one and the same individual, a most important point in scientific work. Canterbury College, bv applying this principle could _<l<> still more; the work of the late Dr. Koorders was of an observational nature only, the Cass Laboratory offers sin opportunity to extend it to research by exact methods. "Dr. L. Cockayne was the first in New Zealand to recognise that variability was iargelv due to crossing and that'its share in this phenomenon could 1)0 exactly determined by experiment to observation only.' White at the Cass he ' showed me ■ a number of hybrids in very different families, arid I was most impressed by those in the woody Veronicas, which Cockayne recently le-baptised 'Hebe.' This 'genus has puzzl<sd all who tried to fix the limits of the so-called species within it.

"As early as 1906. Mr T. F. Cheeseman, the highly-esteemed author of the 'Manual of the New Zealand Flora, wrote-that many of its species -ire singularly protean in habit, foliage and inflorescence, varying 60 much in appearance that it is no easy matter to fix their- real limits. Intermediate fornis are numerous, connecting species that would otherwise appear most distinct, and in not a few cases those intermediates blend so ireely into one another that an apparently continuous series of forms is produced, while several species hybridise so readily in cultivation that the supposition at once arises that natural hybrids may al=o occur. Of this there is, thanks to Dr. Cockayne's work, no longer ftny doubt, but the exact role of hybridisation has here, as little as in ."nv other wild plant, not yet been determined. Suggested Study. "The first tiling'to do . would be to study the diversity of those woody Veronicas around- the Cass Laboratory, to label all the different individuals, and to make cuttings of each of them, to which labels with the same number should he-attached. It is a very hiappy circumstance that Hebe can bo multiplied in this way, because that is the only way in which one can obtain a practically unlimited number of identical individuals. :

"The second thing to do would be to cultivate these cuttings under different conditions, so as to determine in Low far they are modified by these, the numbered original individuals around the Cass remaining for comparison; and then, and not before .then, the really important work could begin, that is, the investigation of the inheritance nf the characters, by which the different individuals were distinguished. For this purpose, self-fertilised seeds have to be obtained and sown. Doubtless' many of them - will turn out to be hybrids, that- is, will segregate into a number of forms, some of which will allow the investigator to make a pretty correct guess as to the parentage of the wild hybrids. Then the crown can be set upon tlie work by crossing these supposed parents and by obtaining the hybrid from this cross.

"Part of. this work will go .bcyonfl the short time of life allotted to. the investigator, but, if careful records are kept, the work can be continued by his successor. It is for this reason that it is of so great an advantage that an institution—a permanent institution—like Canterbury College, is behind it, and I feel sure that, if it decided to take .up some suif.i line of work, it would soon take a place in the front line of genetic research —research upon which all advance in breeding, economic animals and plants depends."