A BOTANIST’S PARADISE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20070, 9 April 1927, Page 3

A BOTANIST’S PARADISE

OUR FLORA AND SCENERY PRAISED. DISTINGUISHED VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS. INVESTIGATIONS IN SOUTHERN ISLANDS. A visitor to New Zealand who could toll most Now Zealanders many interesting new facts about their own country, is Dr Cr. Einar Du Kietz, associate professor of plant ecology at the Royal University of Upsala, Sweden. He is a member of the Swedish botanical expedition to Australia and New Zealand, and he has been .investigating in New Zealand _ since ■ last November along the lines of own particular studies. He finds this country of fascinating interest from a botanical, as well as from a scenic, point of view, am. confidently predicts that in the next few years tho Dominion will see a large influx of distinguished botanists from the Old World. Dr Du Rietz is not only writing scientific papers recording the results of his observations, but he is also,sending newpapor articles, and is contemplating writing a pqpular book for the Scandinavian people descriptive of this country. Judging by the enthusiasm with which he spoke of New Zealand to an Otago Daily Times interviewer yesterday, it may bo safely assumed that his book will only add to the fair fame of this highly favoured laDCj WITH THE TUTANEKAI. Dr Du Rietz was one of those who accompanied the Government lighthouse steamer Tutanekai on her recent tour ot the scattered southern islands, and he returned with her to Dunedin yesterday morning from a successful and exceedingly interesting trip. Those islands, as he points out, are reallv classical from the botanist’s point of view, , because in 1840 the Ross Expedition, with Sir Joseph Hooker, remained fat a month at the Auckland and Campbell Islands. Many New Zealand plants were actually described first from these islands by Hooker. Sometimes it is not quite clear what Hooker really meant, because since his time very few botanists have been able to visit tho islands. WRONGLY-NAMED PLANTS. One of the main thing# that Mr Oliver ot the Dominion Museum (staff, and or Du Rietz wanted to clear up was whether all the plants described by Hooker from the islands, and later identified with New Zealand plants, were really identical with the New Zealand plants. They found in several instances that the two weie different. The result is that some New Zealand plants that have been thought to be identical with plants described y Hooker from the islands will uowhave to change their names because they aie known -to be not idontical. A SURPRISING SIMILARITY. Dr Du Rietz’s greatest interest in the islands was, first, with lichens, and, second, to compare their general vegetation with the vegetation of the small islands of the North Atlantic lymg °h the Norwegian coast, which he has been studying for many years. The comparison proved most interesting. Many of the features of the plant life he examined are quite parallel with that found m the islands of the North Atlantic. Especially was that the case on the Snares and the y Bounties, where millions °, f r l’ eng .^? t s and other birds are living. The similarity between these and the islands of tho Norwegian coast was really surprising, not only m the general appearance of the islands, with th ® f ‘ bl^B J.? their millions on the steep rock faces, but in the general type of vegetation. Ine birds are affecting the vegetation in the same wav in each case. They have killed off most y o£ tho plants, and the only survivors are a few that are specially adapted to these extreme conditions. . U l . Bounty Islands, winch i ise to a height ot 290 ft. the birds are living packed bo densely that there is not a single plant able to exist there except some seaweeds. In the bird rookeries of the Antipodes and the Snares there are just a few extremely adapted plants. It is very interesting to know that these birds are very closely related to those in the Norwegian Islands. ~. u One of Dr Du Rietz s chief studies has been lichen flora and the . relation of the Antarctic and South American lichen °orato the lichen flora of the Arctic. Here again he has discovered that the hchcii flora of these islands is very nearly related to the Antarctic and South American and also to tho Arctic lichen flora. Evidently there has been in very carte times an exchange of plants between New Zealand and South America across the Antarctic Continent during the time when there was a land connection. There has also been an exchange of plants between New Zealand and the Arctic by way of the Andes of South America. The lichens of these southern islands have not really been studied since the time of Hooker. Those of the pnares were completely unknown and those in the Antipodes almost unknown except for some collected by Dr Cockayne. Di Du Rietz is taking back with him a, very largo collection both of the' higher plants and of lichens. „ . t . There have been two really important stages in the investigation ot these islands. Tho first was tho original work of Hooker, which laid the foundation of tho knowledge gained, and tho second stage has been the investigations made by Dr Cockayne during several visits he has made there. LANDINGS AT ALL ISLANDS. “The Tutanekai had .strong winds and rough seas between tho but on the whole wo could not complain of the weather,” said Dr Du Rietz. “We had some days that .wore quite fine and with sunshine. Tho fact that wo were able to land at all the places was really very fortunate, especially at tho Bounty Islands and tho Snares, where the landing is very difficult. The landing at tho Snares would not have been possible had it not been for the excellent seamanship shown by tho crew of tho Tutanekai. Vve had two days at the south of Stewart Island waiting for good weather for landing on the Snares, and I think tho wild forest mountain scenery of Stewart Island is certainly very fine indeed. Among the Southern Islands the Auckland Island scenery is really marvellous. It is completely untouched wild forest and very dense. It is short and grows only about the shores and not on the higher levels. The only paths through it arc those made by the sea lions. As you go about on these tracks you very often find a big sea lion lying in your way.” “Arc they dangerous?” questioned our representative. “Not in tho least,” said Dr Du Rietz. “They seem to bo very ignorant of their groat strength. If they understood that they certainly could bo quite dangerous for they are very big and strong boasts. However, they are very good-tempered, and you have them round you everywhere on the Snares and Auckland Islands. In one place on Enderby Island we saw a group of 65 of them.” NEW ZEALAND AND SCANDINAVIA. It is a surprising fact that there has never been published any book about Now Zealand in the Scandinavian language. Dr Du Rietz proposes to rectify this omission before very long. He considers it will be most interesting for his countrymen to learn about a country which so strongly resembles their own, as, for instance, in its mountains and fiords and big glaciers and in its general contour with a wet West Coast and a dry East Coast. Dr Du Rietz has been travelling about New Zealand since November in the southern pan of the North Island and through most of the South Island, including Canterbury, Westland, tho Mt. Cook region, Wnkatipu, Manapouri, and Doubtful Sound. He bad a delightful time at Kinloch and up tho Routcburn Valley, whore ho lived for a ! tirao at tho Routcburn Hut. 1 OUR MOUNTAIN SCENERY. “I can say about your mountains,” bo declared, “that they arc certainly amongst I tho finest I have over seen, and as for j the Mount Cook district, I think there j is nothing in the European Alps which j has made such a great impression on me ns that. It is not only the immense height of the mountains, with their great glaciers, but the wide, sweeping outlook of the eastern mountains and tho wide valleys. It is not like in the Alps, where everything is crowded up. There is wide space both horizontal and vertical, something like what wc have in the .Scandinavian mountains, only yours arc much

higher. Mount Cook is probably the finest mountain scenery I have ever seen, and I have seen most of the Scandinavian mountains and the Alps of Europe. The view from Lake Harris Saddle is certainly one of the finest that could be found anywhere. The Sounds are very similar to some of the south Norwegian fiords. There is just the same sort of scenery, only in vour fiords vegetation is much richer and of subtropical type. I think New Zealand is one of the finest tourist countries of the world. It is only because of your isolated position that you do not get more visitors. When you get easier communications you will have a very great stream of people here from all parts ot the world. You have so much more lett of primeval nature than have most other countries.” SOUTH ISLAND FOR SCENERY AND BOTANY. In a comparison being suggested between North and South Islands, Dr Du Rietz said he had not seen a great deal of the North Island as yet, though he had visited the Tararuas and the Ruahinds, but, he added, “from what I have seen I think that the South Island certainly has the finest scenery in Lew Zealand. Of course, the north probably has more curious things, like hot springs, but the real grand tcenery is here in the south; and from a botanist’s point of view it certainly is the most interesting, because you have a rich mountain flora to be found only in the South Island.’ NEW ZEALAND’S PECULIAR INTEREST. “New Zealand is really one of the most interesting, countries in the world for a botanist, not only because of the great varieties in conditions from the drought of Central Otago to the rains of the West Coast, but also because it is perhaps the most suitable country in the whole world for the establishment of original species. 1 think that the great work started here in New Zealand by Dr Cockayne and Dr Allan, of Fcilding in collaboration with Messrs G. Simpson and J. Ihomson, of Dunedin, will attract the _eyes of the botanists of the world to New Zealand to an extent that you here would hardly dream of, I think you will have a stream of botanists from the whole world coming here in the next few years to examine this work and get the results demonstrated. I really think that is going to happen, and the result of this work will be a very great increase in our knowledge of the origin of species, lour New Zealand high mountain flora is certainly one of the best subjects in the world for this study. You can see there in the mountains how new species are formed by hybridisation. This study is now taken up on a very large scale by Dr Cockayne and his fellow-workers, and I think they will get very important results.” , Dr Du Rietz will be working in the Otago University Museum laboratory with his specimens for a week or so, and will return north about the middle of the month. He will continue his botanical investigations in the central and northern parts of the North Island till he leaves this country about the end of May.