44 Transactions. 



Auckland and Campbell Islands, but confined elsewhere to a few rocky point- 

 and small islands in the far north of the North Island ; Urtica austral)* 

 Hook, f., common in Chatham, Antipodes, and Auckland Islands, but in New 

 Zealand proper occurring only on Dog and Centre Islands, Foveaux Strait ; 

 Drosera pygmaea D.C., only recorded from near Kaitaia in the extreme 

 north and the Bluff Hill in the extreme south ; Pittosporum obcordatum 

 Raoul, occurs sparingly near Kaitaia, and Akaroa, Banks Peninsula ; Plagi- 

 anihus cymosus T. Kirk, only recorded from Dunedin, Lyttelton, some 

 of the Marlborough Sounds, and Kaitaia ; Suttonia chathamica Mez, com- 

 mon in the Chatham Islands, and found in two localities in Stewart Island : 

 Lepyrodia Traversii F. Muell., common in Chatham Island, and found in 

 certain bogs of the Waikato and at one locality near Kaitaia ; Styphelia 

 Richei Labill., common in Chatham Island, and found elsewhere only near 

 the North Cape ; Melicytus macrophyllus A. Cunn., common in certain 

 Auckland forests, but absent elsewhere, except one locality near Dunedin. 

 Other examples of discontinuous distribution, though more connected 

 than the above, include Elaeocharis sphacelata R. Br., Dracophyllum lati- 

 jolium A. Cunn., Clematis afoliata Buch., Quintinia acutifolia T. Kirk. 

 Celmisia Traversii Hook, f., Pseudopanax ferox T. Kirk, Carmichaelia 

 gracilis J. B. Armstg., Coprosma rubra Petrie, Veronica speciosa R. Cunn.. 

 &c. Were there merely one or two cases the discontinuous distribution 

 might be attributed to chance, but as there are numerous cases, and as 

 these gradually merge into examples of greater and greater continuity, 

 it is probable that the species in most cases were at one time more widely 

 spread, and that in the extreme cases as above we are face to face with 

 the phenomenon of a species naturally on the verge of extinction. 



IX. Evolution in the Genus Veronica in New Zealand. 



The New Zealand flora, as already pointed out, possesses many genern 

 containing very " variable species," which are of much interest for evolu- 

 tionary studies. Of all such, Veronica is the most instructive, illustrating, 

 as it does, the general principles of evolution apart from any theories as 

 to method. , 



Cheeseman admits eighty-four species, but the view he takes is a most 

 conservative one, and probably without forsaking the ideals of orthodox 

 taxonomy some thirty more species could be conveniently added to the 

 ist. Were, however, that school of botany which is dealing with Rosa. 

 Rubus, Hieracium, and Crataegus in the Northern Hemisphere to study 

 the New Zealand forms, several hundreds of species would be forthwith 

 " created." Should this ever be done without experimental culture of 

 each proposed form the work will be biologically useless. 



The species differ both epharmonically and floristically. The former 

 concerns distinctions between groups of forms rather than between species, 

 while the latter treats of the specific marks. 



There are two main classes — the shrubby and the herbaceous — together 

 with the suffruticose. The multitude of forms, with but few exceptions, 

 are connected, and a great number more or less intergrade in a linear 

 series. There is every evidence, then, of descent from a common ancestor, 

 which, considering the genus beyond New Zealand as well as within its 

 confines, would probably be an herbaceous plant with a didymous capsule 

 such as V. (Jhamaedrys L. Further, the plasticity of many " species 

 and the astonishing variability suggest that changes of form are, bio- 

 logically speaking, in rapid progress at the present time. 



