TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE 



1911. 



Art. I. — Observations concerning Evolution, derived from Ecological Studies 



in New Zealand. 



By L. Cockayne, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd August, 1911.] 



Plates I-VIII. 



Table of Contents. 



I. Introduction. 



II. Elementary species. 



III. Variation. 



IV. Mutation. 

 V. Epharmon}'. 



1. General. 



2. Fixity of species — plasticity. 



3. Response to ecological factors. 



(a.) Soil. 

 {b.) Light. 

 (c.) Wind. 

 (d.) Water, 

 (e.) Altitude. 



4. After-effect of stimuli. 



5. Convergent epharmony. 



(a.) The divaricating shrub form. 

 (6.) The cushion form, 

 (c.) The liane form. 

 (d.) The prostrate form. 



6. Persistent juvenile forms. 

 VI. Hybridization. 



VII. The struggle for existence. 

 VIII. Distribution of species. 



1. Distribution in general. 



2. Isolation. 



IX. Evolution in the genus Veronica. 

 X. Concluding remarks. 

 XI. List of literature cited. 



I. Introduction. 



Plant-ecology is concerned with the study of plants as living organisms, 

 not in the laboratory under artificial conditions, but in the field as they 

 grow naturally. Like every branch of a great science, its content is not 

 bounded by any definite limits, but it intergrades with various departments 

 1- Trans. 



