ARCHISTROBILI

Evening Star, Issue 20586, 11 September 1930, Page 11

ARCHISTROBILI

PLAIN BOTANICAL TALK “ NOT UNDERSTOOD.” LONDON. August 24. “ PhylHdia are _ modified appendages of protexis, originally of sporangiophoric origin. They form archistrobili.” This sentence by Professor M'Lean, of Cardiff, is a mild specimen of the language used by speakers at the International Botanical Conference at Cambridge. No wonder 1,200 representatives of fifty-six countries, including Dr A. A. C. Rivetb and Dr Darnell Smith, for Australia, flocked to Cambridge, and “house full” signs were hung out early on the opening day, when Professor Rosenberg, of Stockholm, began a “survey of modern cytology (the branch of biology dealing with cells). Someone mentioned that there was a larger hall near Cambridge and at once eminent botanists shouldered chairs and marched to establish the truth of the rumour. Before Professor M'Lean had spoken the president (Professor Seward, professor of botany at Cambridge University) had remarked, “ Even those of us who speak the same language cannot always follow one another’s botanical communications.”

The official languages of the conference are English, French, and German. The first-named is tho mother tongue of 800 representatives. Mapping tho beech forests of Southern Sweden from the air was described by Mr B. Lindquist, who pointed out that beech forests can easily be distinguished at a great distance during several weeks of the spring, owing to their light verdtirc. Flying at a height, of about a mile he mapped 30,000 square miles.