Cockayne. — Ecological Studies in Evolution. 47 



polygenetic development of species. This polygenetic origin of form, if not 

 of species, is the more likely, as the form exists in other families, while the 

 distribution of the species shows that, though some are widespread, there 

 are a number of species of restricted distribution— e.g., V. Langii Cockayne 

 (Stewart Island), V. Hectori Hook. f. (western Otago), V. propinqua 

 Cheesem. (Mount Maungatua and some other Otago mountains), V. sali- 

 cornioides Hook. f. (Nelson), V. Astoni (Tararua Mountains), V. tetragona 

 (volcanic plateau), and others not yet described. 



Veronica Haastii Hook, f., V. epacridea Hook, f., and V. Petriei T. Kirk 

 are not definitely connected with the rest of class 2, and may be considered 

 a side branch, with modified leaves. 



Class 3 form a distinct line of descent to itself, and its connection with 

 any other branch of the genus is not clear. Two species are moor-plants, 

 and the remainder rock-plants ; their growth-forms are epharmonic. The 

 branched panicle of V. Hulkeana F. Muell., V. Lavaudiana Raoul, and 

 V. Raoulii Hook. f. remove them from the rest of the class. Nevertheless. 

 branching of the inflorescence is merely a question of degree, and occur.-, 

 at times in various species— e.g., V. Traversii Hook, f., where it is un- 

 expected — while in others a similar inflorescence is a specific character 

 (V. diosmaefolia, V. Menziesii Benth.). 



Regarding the herbaceous species, V. pulvinaris Benth. & Hook, belong- 

 ing to Pygmaea, their leaves are not arranged quadrifarionsly. By some 

 they are regarded as forming a distinct section of the genus. At present it 

 is impossible to assign them a place in the direct line of descent. They are 

 cushion plants, and epharmonically similar to Myosotis pulvinaris Hook. f. 



The suffruticose veronicas (V. catarractae Forst. f., V. Lyallii Hook, f., 

 and V. Bidwillii Hook, f.) are closely related to one another — so closely, 

 indeed, that it is hard to assign limits to any as a Linnean species, and the 

 simplest method from that standpoint would be to unite all three. 



X. Concluding Remarks. 



The object of this . paper is to supply material for consideration by 

 students of evolution culled from a field which, although not altogether 

 neglected, is much less cultivated for the supply of evolutionary pabulum, 

 especially by English writers, than is the wide domain of zoology, whence 

 come the bulk of the facts of so many works on evolution. 



Whatever of value there may be in this ecological material lies in the 

 fact that it is drawn from an isolated and virgin vegetation, and one, too, 

 where the grazing animal played a most insignificant part compared with 

 its role in the Old World. 



The details have not been selected to support any particular theory, 

 though, of course, as ecological observations are the basis of the paper, the 

 relation of plant to environment takes the leading place. 



By one celebrated school of biologists the ultimate inheritance of cha- 

 racters* evoked by stimuli affecting the body-cells is either considered 

 impossible or an occurrence so rare as to be negligible, while such evidence 

 as I have advanced is looked upon as worthless, or, at best, as quite 



* For years Henslow has battled strenuously for the cause of the inheritance of 

 acquired characters, but without receiving the attention his works deserve; in fact, 

 many writers seem acquainted only with his " Origin of Floral Structures," and neglect 

 altogether his much more convincing " Origin of Plant Structures," a work full of 

 suggestive material. 



