The Nature Column.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 26, 10 September 1920, Page 6

The Nature Column.

(By "Student.")

("Student" will be pleased to receive notes on any brancn of Natural History. Observations on birds, insects, plants, etc., will be equally welcome. If using a pen-name, will correspondents please enclose real name and address. ) A correspondent has kindly sent me the iollowing par from the "Bulletin" : Character and colour in both plants and animals are tricky things. It has been found at Werribee (Yictoria) that a cross between Indian H and Jonathan wheats gives every time a grass-like plant which probably refiembles the common ancestor of a few tens of thousands of years ago, from whioh the hundreds of varieties of wheat have evolved. Other crosses with Indian wheat give very much this result sometimes, but in the case of these two the average is 100 per cent. Why, no one yet knows. With regard to colour in cattle, ihe late Robert Clark, a noted breeder,

uscd to boast. that he could hreed white cattle at any time he pleased. His method was to mat-e a bull of one colour with a cow of another, neither of them being white and he claiined that in every inrtaiie? the calf was white. And while block sheep are seen often enough, those breeders who have tried to build up a black flock by using black rams and black ewes have always failed. I noticed somewhere or other- in "The Digger" that the smallest birch tree in the world grew in Canada, and measured, I think, 18 inches across. The botanist who wants to find things extraordinary in plant life has no need to go out of New Zealand. What Mr Cheeseman describes as "a very remarkable little species, probably the smallest known pine" is Dacrydium Lavifolium, a rather graceful, straggling shrub which grows on the mountains at from 2500 to 4000 feet throughout New Zealand. At Stewart Island it is found at sea-level. Fruiting specimens of this tree barely three inches in diameter are often to be seen, though generally it grows to a larger size. Usually the top is but four or five inches above the ground. In our so-called mountain lily we have the largest buttercup in the world, and a most beautiful flower. The common grounded is represented in New Zealand by fine shrubs like the mutton bird schrub (Senecie R,otundicolia) and the common daisy by large shrubs. If these things grew in Java or Timbuctoo we would know all about them. Even in geography _ we find the average 6th standard schoolboy knows nothing of the country about his doors. If you ask him to point out the West DoinCj Middlle Dome, or some other prominent peak to he seen from Invercargill, he will want to know what you are getting at. In all probability, he could not compile a list of Southland's exports, though he migght give a list of Auckland's. The plants of New Zealand possess a very special interest. Mr Cockayne says that of the 600 special alpine species, 94 per cent. are found in no other part of the world. Nearly all of these plants are very specially fitted to withstand the rigorous conditions under which they live. They also include nearly the whole of the most showy flowering plants of the Dominion. Perhaps the buttercups most deserve mention. There are a large number of ] these headed by the queenly Ranuculus j Lyallii, the finest buttercup in the world. | The mountain lily when at its best has a 1 tall stem on which bunches of upwards of thirty fiowers may be seen, each flower j as big as a five shiiling piece. To see hun- j dreds of these plants blooming at the one j time is probably equal to anything of ' its kind to be seen anywhere. Then there ; are the Celmisias. With one exception, j they are al true New Zealanders, and j there are fifty-one or more sorts. To see j acres of this plant in bloom is will worth i the climb to their home. The New Zea- I land Edelweiss far surpasses the Swiss variety, so much mentioned in books dealing with that region. But it is needless to go on making comparisons. There is perhaps no country on the earth offering better opportunities to the botanist. We look to the public school teachers to give the coming generation a lead in the right direction, but until we get the right sort ; of teachers I am airaid there will be little progress. The authorities in charge of the "School Journal" are certainly doing their little bit, but what of the large number of young teachers now in the profession. I am afraid many of these have no higher ambition than the lads we see at the street corner after work, discussing the latest picture aensation. So. far, this column has had one communication from a backblockg teacher. We would like to hear from others. The par in last week's "Digger" with reference to cooking by means of sunheat, shows that attempts are still being made to use direct solar heat. Between the equator and .lattitude 45 degrees North and South, the sun gives forth heat which is the equivalent of 8000 foot pounds of energy per minute per square foot. Thus four square feet equals one horsepower. In practise it talces 100 square feet to provide one horse-power. A one hun'dred horse-power plant was in operation in Egypt several years ago. The sun is the source oi nearly all our energy. It provided the energy to grow the vegetat-ion that mad© coal. To-dav by photo. syntbesis it builds up complex hydro carbons from which we mahe alcohol for power. It vaporises water, and causes rain to supply our hydro-electrio schemes, It makes the wind to blow. It causes the tides largely, and these are already harnessed in some places. Old Sol is our main generating station. If the fossil fuels of the world were to be exhausted within the next hundred years, he would supply us with all the power necessary and at a cost perhaps, not very greatly in excess of coal. Look out for the Cuckoo, both longtail and shining. Systematic not^s of their first appearance in this district will be oi distinct scientific interest.