PLANT LIFE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 27, 31 January 1919, Page 3

PLANT LIFE

A STUDY OF FOLIAGE,

An interesting lecture on the function of a leaf was given by Mr. Robert Nairn, president-elect of the Nurserymen's Association, yesterday. Mr. Nairn described in simple language the work which the leaf had to perform in drawing light and carbon, and converting it into food for the plant. The leaf aJso acted as a pnmp to draw up moisture from the soil. To enable a plant to live under varying conditions of soil and climate the leaf had a great power of adapting itself to environment. This power of adaptation might be seen manifested on every hand. Mr. Nairn illustrated its application with a number of specimens. One of these was the common ivy, which in its ancestral condition was not a climber, but took on that characteristic in order to reach the light, and survive in the struggle for existence. When the necessity for that straggle no longer obtained the plant reverted to its anoestra\ condition. Striking examples of the power of adaptation were to be seen in the < case of plants brought to New Zealand from other countries. There were seen the power to change the direction of the leaves and the form so as to take more or less light as the climate made necessary. In ferns they saw the same power of adaptation, where fronds were divided so as to save the plant from drowning under very moist conditions. Mr. Nairn also showed the function of chlorophyll in the leaf, and how variegations came. Where variegation came in the plant was not so healthy as wlien the leaf retained its natural colour.

The lecture v/as listened to attentively, and appreciation of it was expressed by the association.