LINCOLN GROWS AS SCIENTIFIC CENTRE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 19 September 1959, Page 9

LINCOLN GROWS AS SCIENTIFIC CENTRE

With the move to Lincoln district shortly of the Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research specialists on almost every aspect of plants will be located in the same area. Dr. E. J. Godley, Director of the Botany Division, said this week that he believed that Christchurch had the biggest organisation for research on higher or flowering plants in the country, with Canterbury Agricultural College, the D.S.I.R. Crop Research and Botany Divisions in addition to the Botanic Gardens, the Museum, the botany department at Canterbury University, the Department of Agriculture and Forestry units. With the new 15,000 square feet headquarters of the Botany Division and some associated groups now nearing completion alongside the Crop Research Division at Lincoln, Dr. Godley said he hoped that his division would be able to move very shortly from Christchurch into its new quarters. Dominating feature of the new building, which is mainly of fairface reinforced concrete construction, is the steel portal framed herbarium with a roof design which is a variation of the saw tooth roof construction. This design had been used to enable the maximum amount of light to enter the deep room which will house in cabinets some 120,000 dried plant specimens, quite a number of which were collected as long ago as the 1890's. The collection comprises both a native section and a section for introduced plants and weeds and in the new quarters there will be room for twice

the present number of specimens

The Botany Division will occupy the whole of the ground floor of the new building, which incorporates a two-storey wing, except for the library, which will be shared by the Crop Research and Botany Divisions and' the associated sub-sections. The two divisional libraries will be amalgamated.

In addition to offices the Botany Division section includes a laboratory for general botanical work, a cytology laboratory for the study of chromosomes and a large preparation and poison room where plants are prepared, and treated against insect damage, for the collection. In the upstairs section of the two-storey wing there will be a photographic section with dark room, studio and office to serve all sections of the D.S.I.R. community, on the west side offices and a laboratory for the entomological sub-station of the Entomology Division, which recently moved to Lincoln from Ashburton, and on the other side of the wing the sub-station of the Grasslands Division which will also have offices and a laboratory. About 35 persons will occupy the new building and with the Crop Research Division and its associated sections there will be about 100 persons working in close proximity. Dr. Godley said this week that the close association- of the two divisions would enable both to make use of the same attached specialist sections

such as applied mathematics, plant chemistry, plant physiology and entomology. Alterations are also being made to the buildings of the Crop Research Division. The main building of the division will become the administrative centre for all the D.S.I.R. units at Lincoln. The front of this building is being remodelled so that it will blend in better with the entrance to the adjacent Botany Division building and at the same time two additional rooms and new facilities are being provided for a telephonist and receptionist. The division’s No. 2 building is also being altered to provide four new rooms using the old divisional library.

The Botany Division will have use of six acres of land alongside the new building and another 15 acres near the Lincoln District High School. Part of this area was formerly used by the Crop Research Division for lucerne trials. The Crop Research Division has now taken the lease of 40 acres of Canterbury Agricultural College’. o light land farm at Ashley Dene where the college and division will work more closely on projects including lucerne breeding and testing. The college as wel’ as the division will be doing ecological and testing work on Jucerne and testing of aphid resistant strains of rape for palatability and live-weight gain will be carried out in collaboration with the college this summer. The transfer of the Botany Division will mark a further step in the growth of. Lincoln as a research apd scientific centre.