MEMORIAL TO DR. COCKAYNE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22551, 5 November 1938, Page 18

MEMORIAL TO DR. COCKAYNE

Native Garden Opened In Christchurch ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR SKOTTSBERG "Leonard Cockayne was not what we might call a local botanist, for even if nis influence was felt with all its immediate strength here in New Zealand, it reached very far. What he means to New Zealand cannot be adequately expressed in few words because his activities were so manifold and so wide ranging." This was a part of the tribute paid to Dr. Leonard Cockayne, F.R.S., one of New Zealand's most distinguished botanists, by Professor Carl Skottsberg ; Professor of Botany at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Director of the Botanic Gardens at Gothenburg, before he declared open the memorial garden to Dr. Cockayne, in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens yesterday afternoon. The native plants which will be grown in the garden will be used for the study of eyolution and hybridism, in which Dr. Cockayne was particularly interested. The establishment of the garden was made possible by the efforts of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand which was assisted by the Christchurch Domains Board and by the curator of the Botanic Gardens (Mr J. A. McPherson). The ceremony yesterday was attended by a representative gathering of members of the Royal Society, the Domains Board, and others interested in botany and in the work of Dr Cockayne.

"Great Honour for Board" Before addressing the gathering, Mr Henry Kitson, chairman of the Domains Board, read a telegram from the Minister in charge of the Department for Scientific and "industrial "Research VCnc Hon. D. G. Sullivan), expressing regret that he was unable to attend the ceremony, and extending best wishes for the success of the function. Mr Kitson said it was a great honour for the board to have the garden in its care. Not. so many years ago there had not been much work of a scientific nature in the Botanic Gardens, but progress had been made, particularly with native plants. Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf, presid«nt of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, said that the council of the society considered what it could do to keep the memory of Dr. Cockayne green for the younger generation of botanists. Scholarships, research grants and the like were proposed, but finally there was adopted the proposal of a garden to include the plants in which Cockayne was most Interested, the alpines. and also more recondite material for the study of variation and heredity. He expressed appreciation of the work of those who had helped in putting the proposal into operation. The collection was carefully and completely labelled, he said. It was arranged with North Island plants in the far border and South Island plant?, in the beds. In the course of time, other generations would be planted and would provide material for study and research in variation.

Work in Plant Ecology In his address. Professor Skottsberg said that Dr. Cockayne was one of those who shifted the management of New Zealand botany from the old countries to New Zealand itself. He was a man who definitely made it a national science. To him botany did not mean simply listing plant species and tagging Latin names to them. He went for the living thing and introduced modern plant ecology, the science of the plant in relation to its surroundings, past and present, into New Zealand, not to become an inanimate copy of other people's views forced upon r new and strange world, but as an original structure, enriched and flavoured by his masterly mind. This work made him famous, and naturally so, and botanists who worked in other countries soon came to 16ok upon him not only as the outstanding figure in New Zealand botany, but also as a master whose influence on the progress of plant ecology was felt far and wide. Professor Skottsberg then unveiled the memorial stone end planted a tree.