Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 73

The bunody Sijr bulletin Advuitiiui huiioljiu. juiiudiy 4. 1068 E-3 Environmental Update i 4 flO 5 i 0 Tin '1 1 i n- ilfliy 7attYzf scientists disagreed with the way Otto Degener classified Hawaiian plants. But they did not disagree about his dedication. His lifes work was Flora Hawaiiensis, a scholarly seven-volume collection of illustrated descriptions of Hawaiian plants.

1 fl.liS1 1 1 Isle otanist recalle as brill iant, opinionate i 4 4, S3 By Jan TenBruggencate Mvertiier Kauai Bureau Botanist Otto Degener, who died Jan. 16 at 88, is remembered by his colleagues as a brilliant, opinionated, sometimes caustic but dedicated scientist whose contributions to Hawaiian botany were immense. Some loved him, and with some there were long and bitter disputes. Friends and enemies alike said his two most important accomplishments were a lifetime of collecting plant materials in Hawaii and his strong voice for conservation of Hawaiian wildlife. Many of the Hawaiian herbarium specimens had been sent to Berlin for safekeeping and were destroyed in World War II bombing.

It convinced him of the need to spread material as broadly as possible. "His collections of Hawaiian plant material is a valuable source of research, well-documented and distributed around the world. No one can work on Hawaiian plants without consulting his specimens." said Charles Lamou-reaux. University of Hawaii professor of botany. "The thing that drove him during the last two decades of his life was to find depositories for his specimens throughout the world, to make a record, because, he said, this is how the Hawaiian flora will be remembered 100 years from now," said Mae Mull, a friend of Degener and Hawaii representative of the Hawaii Audubon Society.

Horace Clay, research associate in botany at Bishop Museum, said many of the plants Degener collected are now extinct. One value of his collections is that they are all that is left of those plants for science to study. Degener and his wife, botanist Isa Degener, had no children. Degener considered his collections his legacy to the world. Mull said.

Many Hawaii scientists disagreed other parts of the world. He wrote that many tropical plants had been shipped around so much that tropical areas had lost their individual identities. You might see the same plants and be unable to tell where you were on arriving in Hawaii, or the Bahamas or any of a dozen other warm spots, he complained. He had a wry sense of humor. He once named a plant for a man, but as a practical joke left a flaw in the documentation by failing to provide a proper Latin description, so the naming would forever be considered improper.

Clay said that once when he was collecting insects found in Hawaii, Degener gave him a dead Japanese beetle not previously known in Hawaii, but a serious plant pest in other parts of the world. The sugar industry worried about the effects of the bug's introduction to Hawaii. Degener finally told Clay the bug had actually come to Hawaii dead, entombed inside a jar of strawberry preserves from Boston. He left it to Clay to explain to the sugar industry. Degener could hold a grudge, said one botanist.

The mutual animosity between Degener and fellow tuxonomist Harold St. John was well-known. Even after Degener's death, St. John declined to talk about him. Others spoke but declined to be quoted.

"He was a brilliant, eccentric genius. Eccentric in every way," said Clay, who knew Degener well and liked him. "Because he was so brilliant, I guess he was abrasive with some people." Mull saw it another way. "He was a provocateur," she said, who often said and did things in order to get a response rather than because they were things he really believed. "He stimulated a lot of thinking.

He was one of the legends of this century." said Sohmer. he was so fascinated by the "strange animals and plants" of the Islands that he enrolled at the University of Hawaii and earned a Master's degree in 1923. He taught botany at the university, and served a stint in 1929 as naturalist at Hawaii National Park. All the time he was collecting plant specimens, and he wrote extensively. An early book, "Plants of Hawaii National Park Illustrative of Plants and Customs of the South Seas," is a classic.

His life's work was Flora Hawaiiensis. a scholarly seven-volume collection of illustrated descriptions of Hawaiian plants. Opinions about Flora Hawaiiensis are mixed. Some consider it a major work, but one colleague said the incomplete work would have taken Degener another 200 years to complete, it was such a huge project. Degener's valuable skills might better have been used if he had limited his attention to individual families of plants and finished those.

There is no shortage of diverging opinions of Degener. A list of his writings, most co-authored with his wife, runs pages long. And it is in those hundreds of articles and regular letters to editors and scientists in Hawaii and across the globe that his other great contribution is found. "He was the first botanist in this century to really speak out on the need for saving Hawaiian plants," said La-moureaux. "He was a conservationist early on.

He did more than any than any other single individual to dramatize the plight of the flora of the Hawaiian Islands." said S.H. "Si" Sohmer, assistant director of the Bishop Museum for research and scholarly studies and head of its botany department. He fought the destruction of forests, the logging of Hawaii's tree ferns, and the introduction of tropical plants from .4. I 4 t' Frank Salmoiraghi photo Otto and Isa Degener in with the way Degener classified Hawaiian plants. He was considered a "splitter," a scientist who tended to recognize as different species those related plants that others might see as varieties of the same species.

The opposite of a splitter is a "lumper," someone to accepts variability and tends to recognize fewer different spe- cies. Kaymond Fosbcrg, retired senior botanist at Smithsonian Institution, is a lumper. "In some cases, most of us wouldn't have agreed with him scientifically," Fosbcrg said, but he said there is no denying Degener's dedication. Degener came to Hawaii in 1J22. I le said in a letter to The Advertiser that.

1 Ed Arrigoni Exploring Nature in Hawaii Safely A dozen reasons why take your to the beach hen a dog is in ocean water most or all the fleas on It do not wash off. 10. Indigestion or food poisoning. Roaming dogs often knock oser garbage cans In beach parks and eat rotting food scraps they find there. This ran result In gastrointestinal tract damage.

Sand In food also harms dogs. 11. Kecoiiiing lust. Lost dog suffer from thirst, hunger, injury from certain plants, exhaustion and distress. Often children never see their pet again after hat should hase been a happy day at the beach.

12. Unpopularity. People's mpathy for dogs decreases hen the clogs bark, kick up sand, deposit body wastes and exhibit other nuisance behas lors. And people see less of nature ss hen dogs share outdoor settings, because certain kinds of native birds and other ild animals hide from dogs. Acrordingto Alex Chapman, a Hawaiian Humane Society Information specialist, these problems at seashores are wr'l know n.

Hut she sld the society is short of animal rontrol officers to patrol fill of the island. Kailua Heath Tark and Kahala Bearh are two chronic problem sites that need greater enforcement, she said. Ch.iprnan said mut of the prtd.de Is due to repeat offenders ho allow their degs to roam. She noted that pit king up dogs- and taking them awav from their ovs ners Is stressful for the an InijK, and said this is another reason dags should not be brought to the shore. you shouldn't dog with you Signs prohibiting dogs et all our seashores, parks and other nature sites In Hawaii are doing dogs a favor.

Dogs are NOT designed for most of the environment by Mother Nature. At the seashore dogs can be harmed by: 1, Eye Injuries. Dogs' eyes are close to the sand, vvhere harmful heat and sunlight are strongly reflerted. Sand and other beach debris Mow by the ind can become lodged In their ejes, Just as In ours. The resulting damage ran affect the eye fluid (conjunctivitis), the eye surface (rorrrr a), and possibly ran result In cataracts.

2. Drowning. Many dogs are poor sw immers In strong ocean currents and ran quickly be swept away from safely. Fven after bring rrsrued. a dog may suffer continuing anxiety from the near-death experience.

(Dogs on boats should I pros I Hrd ith sped all) designed life Jackets. .1. Excessively dry skin. Salt and bacteria from ocean water can harm dags' skin, which is hy dogs should be hosed down wish fresh ater after being la the wean. I.

Potir footing and Irritated paw s. Dogs with short, thin legs do not move well across soft sand, pitted ground or spaced shore rocks. All dogs' feet can be cut by broken glass hidden below the surface of the sand, and very hot sand can irritate their feet, just as It does ours. Dogs often find it difficult to follow their jogging owners along uneven shorelines. 3.

Sunburn. Any dog exposed to direct sunlight for prolonged periods can be sunburned, despite having seemingly protective fur. A short-haired dog Ijlng on Its side can be severely sunburned underneath, even on a cloudy day, G. Txtreme thirst. This serious problem often goes unnoticed by dog owners.

7. Hyperthermia (overheating) and ex haustion. Some indications of canine perthermla are heavy breathing, trembling, glaied eyes and the tongue becoming purple or deep red, according to Nicholas rIumbro of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the I'niversH) of Haw ail. He said gis ing an erheaied dug lots of nter may seem logical, tut It ran be harmful. A di may enter the ocean j.

sCn: Sf because It Is overheated or because it is follow ing the desires of Its owner. Very likely a dog at an unsheltered beach for a long time would prefer to go to a shady spot and rest. For good adv Ire, consult a seterlnarian or the Hawaiian Sodefy. X. Harm marine anlrnah.

Dogs can be stung by Portuguese man-of-s ar on the beach or In the water. Dogs on shallow reefs hase suffered puncture wounds from sea urchins (w una) and have been bitten by eels. 9. Fless. A dog may get or 1 1- fie us along the upper shnre strand.

Despite a popular belief..