Arboretum she will be able to draw on a wide range of experience.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks have made sure that Miss Vallis has been trained in all aspects of the job.

Her training included working in sub-tropical conditions, in a park famed for its scientific research and in one of the most respected botanical gardens in the world.

But nature also added to that training by throwing Hurricane Andrew into the programme while Miss Vallis was in Florida.

Andrew hit the Fairchild Tropical Gardens and Miss Vallis was involved in the huge clean up and repair operation that followed.

"They lost the canopy off the gardens and while the damage was not as bad as they first thought, they lost 90 species which are now gone from the gardens,'' she said.

"Out of 1,300 species that represents about seven percent which was a substantial loss.'' Miss Vallis pointed out that Andrew was costly to the gardens especially as seeds in some cases cost as much as $500 each.

She has been back at the Botanical Gardens for some months and will fly out to Pennsylvania, before completing her training here.