THE STUDY OF LICHENS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 127, 25 November 1926, Page 17

THE STUDY OF LICHENS

SWEDISH BOTANIST'S VISIT

EXTSNSIVE TOUR Oi' NEW

ZEALAND,

A noted visitor to New Zealand, who arrived from Sydney this week, is Dr. Dv Eietz, Lecturer of Botany and Keeper of the Herbarium of the University of Upsala, Sweden, which, as far as botany is concerned, is probably the most famous university in the world. The Upsala University was the workshop of the great Linnaeus, a celebrated .Swedish .botanist and naturalist. Dr. Dv Eietz has just spent six weeks in the vicinity of Sydney, and he arrived at Sydney from the United States, having been one of the Swedish delegates at the International Botanical Congress at Ithaca, New York. Dr. Dv Eietz is famous in several respects. He is virtually the founder of the important Swedish school of ecology, which is the study of plants as they grow naturally in. the open air. He is also probably the foremost .expert regarding lichens. In this matter, during the six months he is staying in New Zealand, he will thoroughly study the lichen flora and its relation to that of other lands as to the climate of New Zealand. In the latter case, his work will probably be of great economic importance for. New Zealand forestry. In this connection, it is the opinion of Dr. L. Cockayne, i\R.S., Honorary Botanist of the State Forest Service, that lichens are exact indications of climate, of sun and shade, etc. Thus it may bo from the study of these curious plants, generally neglected, that an exact knowledge will conro of what forest trees can be grown in various parts of New Zealand forests, in order to fill up the gaps caused by sawmilling, etc.; or on the other hand to show what cannot be grown. If data of this kind comes from Dr. Dv Rietz's visit, it will be of the greatest economic importance to the Dominion.

Dr. Dv Rietz, who is accompanied by his wife, is staying for about a month in the neighbourhood of Wellington in order to become fully acquainted with the flora of the district, much of which he will find in other parts of New Zealand. During the Christmas holidays he will be the guest of the Tararua Tramping Club, who will conduct him over the Tararua Mountains. Later, he will proceed to the mountain biological stations of Canterbury College, to Hokitika, to Mount Cook, and to the fiords of North-west Otago, to see how they compare with the celebrated fiords of Norway. Dr. Dv Eietz will endeavour to visit every part of New Zealand from the North Cape to the Lord Auckland Islands, collecting plants and studying vegetation.