VEGETABLE SHEEP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20152, 23 January 1940, Page 5

VEGETABLE SHEEP

BOTANICAL CURIOSITY

SPECIMENS FOR MUSEUM

MISS CRANWELL’S STUDIES

Some remarkably fine specimens of a botanical curiosity, the vegetable sheep, will probably appear shortly at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and other northern museums as a result of a recent holiday visit to Stewart Island made by Miss Lucy M. CTanwell, botanist of the Auckland Museum. For some years Miss Cranwell has been engaged on the study of peat bogs, working on material gathered by Dr. Carl Caldenius, a Swedish geologist, who visited New Zealand in 1934. Sortie time after the Swedish doctor’s visit. Miss Cranwell went abroad and while in Sweden she was invited to work on the material gathered in New Zealand by Dr. Caldenius. Her study was not complete when she returned to New Zealand and she brought back with her the material, stopping at Hawaii for five months to study peat bogs which bear a striking resemblance to those in New Zealand. Recently, she found it desirable to visit the peat bogs where the material was gathered, and, accordingly, took advantage of her summer holiday to pursue her studies. Stewart Island Deposits

Among oilier parts of the Southland district visited were Stewart Island, where peat deposits of unusual interest are to be found, and Miss Cranwell returned to the mainland with many valuable samples and specimens. The study of peat deposits is a comparatively new line of investigation, by means of which changes in forest varieties and climatic conditions many centuries earlier can he estimated.

The peat bog develops upward at a very slow rate and holds in suspension pollen dust, which falls from the trees. The pollen of each variety of forest tree has a distinctive appearance when examined under the microscope and by this means changes in the forest trees can be noted. From this also it is possible to determine broadly climatic conditions prevailing during previous centuries. Popular Hunting Ground The vegetable sheep, which is among the most interesting of the specimens secured by Miss Cranwell, consists of hard green cushions, ranging in size from that of a closed fist to two or three feet in diameter, formed by a member of the daisy family. The curious development in shape is due to exposure to severe winds on the mountain sides. The vegetable sheep is a museum curiosity and is in demand at museums in many parts of the world. By securing- specimens in New Zealand local museums are able to arrange for an exchange with other rarities not readily obtainable in New Zealand.