WOMAN BOTANIST

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25996, 27 December 1949, Page 2

WOMAN BOTANIST

Miss Mervyn Davis is believed to be the only woman employed as a technical assistant on a botanic garden staff in Australia. Miss Davis, of Melbourne, is now working in Adelaide. Miss Davis, who is assistant to Mr Noel Lothian, began her training at the Burnley School of Horticulture in Victoria, in 1945. Her work in Adelaide includes the collecting and packing of seeds for overseas, general preparation, mapping and designing of the Botanic Garden, and cataloguing: For the last 12 months Miss Davis was relieving chemist at a large flour mill, where she worked in the laboratory. During the week-ends she did landscape designing for new homes and reconstruction of old gardens. Children of the spastic centre in Sydney were given a real Christmas treat last Thursday. Mr Carlos Zalapa, Consul for Brazil, and Tony, of the famous Sydney restaurant, Romano’s, decided to take Romano’s to the centre. Mr Zalapa had offered to take the children to the restaurant to show them what a smart city eating house was like, but as that was not possible he and Tony decided to visit the centre instead. On Thursday morning the staff of Romano’s—the chefs and waiters—went to the centre and prepared the food, which included turkev, chicken, ham, and sucking pig. A large Christmas tree decked with presents for the children was given by Zalana.