SWEDISH BOTANIST

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 137, 7 December 1938, Page 23

SWEDISH BOTANIST

VISIT APPRECIATED

ROYAL SOCIETY'S TRIBUTE

"The professor collected practically every flowering plant that came under his notice, and the long hours he spent caring for his treasures was a lesson not likely to be forgotten by those who observed it," said Dr. H. H. Allan in reporting to a recent meeting of the standing committee of the Royal Society of New "Zealand on the visit to New Zealand by the Director of the Gothenburg Botanical Gardens, Sweden, Professor Carl Skottsberg, who is renowned for his studies on the biological relations of Austral and Pacific lands.

Professor Skottsberg, a recognised authority on taxonomic and phytographic botany, w ose work has been of great interest and of vital importance to New Zealand botanists, was elected an honorary member of the Royal Society of New Zealand last year. :

Professor Skottsberg went to the Hawaiian Islands to work on the bog vegetation there, and at the instance of the Royal Society and the Senate of the University of New Zealand extended his visit to the Dominion. Dr. Allan, in his report, stated that the branches of the Royal Society and the University Colleges had given keen support so that funds, sufficient to enable Professor Skottsberg to visit New Zealand were soon raised. Great interest had also been expressed by the New Zealand Government.

The professor visited Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and delivered a number of lectures. While in the capital he made an excursion of several days to the Tararua mountains, visited the Otari open air museum, and laid a wreath of native plants, collected by himself,- on the grave of his friend of many years, the late Dr. Leonard Cockayne.

"Besides his formal lectures, Professor Skottsberg gave several shorter talks, delivered radio addresses, and eagerly sought opportunities of discussions with local botanists and students," Dr. Allan said. "A typical example of the professor's eagerness to help was his hour's stay with an isolated young enthusiast at the Homer Saddle.

"The large audiences that listened to his lectures will long retain vivid memories of the vegetation and geography of the regions described, illustrated as they were by a remarkably fine series of lantern slides The professor's visit, his genial personality, his readiness to help, his capacity for work, and his profound knowledge of the subjects dealt with will long inspire those who came under his influence."