Cockayne. — Development of Seedlings. 285 



kindly given to me some years ago by Mr. Henry J. Matthews, 

 Chief Government Forester. The early seedling leaves are of 

 the usual type, with entire margins. The later leaves are also 

 of the same type as those described above, but usually wider 

 (fig. 24). Plants 4 cm. tall have the leaves of the adult type 

 oblong, sometimes oval, quite entire, coriaceous, almost glab- 

 rous, any hairs on upper third of margin most minute ; lamina 

 5*5 mm. x 3 - 80mm., obscurely keeled, tapering into petiole, 

 not truncate; petiole 1mm. long. The adult leaf of the 

 parent is very similar but larger, with lamina 8 mm. x 5 mm., 

 and with base truncate. Very probably had these young 

 plants been growing in the open, and not in the greenhouse, 

 the final leaves would have appeared at an earlier stage. 



Mr. T. Kirk (I.e., p. 524) included V. odora, Hook, f., as a 

 variety of V. buxifolia, Benth., thus differing from Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, who had previously, in the " Handbook of the New 

 Zealand Flora," p. 210, given V. odora as a synonym of 

 V. buxifolia. Whether the plant under discussion is identical 

 with the Auckland and Campbell Island plant originally de- 

 scribed and figured in the "Flora Antarctica," p. 62, tab. 41, 

 under the name of V. odora I am not in a position to say ; 

 but I am certainly well acquainted with two quite distinct 

 plants — viz., the one under consideration, which forms thickets 

 at times in moist shady places in the lower subalpine region 

 of the South Island, often in wet places taking the place of the 

 ordinary mixed subalpine scrub, or when isolated is a bush 

 1 m. or less in height, of a ball-like aspect;* and the other a 

 plant hardly branching, and certainly never forming a round 

 bush, its main stem partly prostrate beneath the soil, and the 

 ascending portion bearing a few short erect branches, and 

 reaching at most a height of 05 m., or in many cases much 

 less. Its leaves, too, are much thicker and more coriaceous 

 than those of V. odora, and its spike very few -flowered. 

 Also, it does not occur in the lower but only in the upper 

 subalpine region, on wet grassy slopes. Of course, it is all a 

 matter of opinion whether a systematic botanist would consider 

 these two plants distinct species, but cecologically they are 

 very distinct indeed, and from that point of view must be 

 treated of separately. The two forms, so far as I know, are 

 never found mixed together ; so here we have another example 

 of a slightly more xerophytic structure keeping two very 

 closely allied forms distinct from one another as to their 

 habitats. 



I have pointed out elsewhere how greatly V. odora varies.! 



* Cockayne, I.e., p. 121. 



t " On the Burning and Reproduction of Subalpine Scrub" (Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxi., p. 417). 



