Cockayne. — Ecological Studies in Evolution . 45 



The New Zealand species, with but few exceptions, reproduce them- 

 selves readily and rapidly from seed, can be easily grown from cuttings, 

 and are not restricted to any special soil. Some respond quickly to change 

 of environment. The genus occurs in all parts of the New Zealand region, 

 except Antipodes and Macquarie Islands. It has representatives in almost 

 every plant formation, but there is only one true forest species (V. gigantea. 

 of Chatham Island). An analysis of distribution shows that seventeen 

 species are coastal, thirteen do not ascend beyond 300 m. altitude, ten to 

 between 300 m. and 900 m., thirteen to 900 m. and less than 1,200 m., 

 and forty-three to that altitude and upwards, while fifty-two of the 

 ninety-six may be considered strictly mountain species. 



Regarding their growth-forms, perhaps six species might be considered 

 herbaceous ; the remainder are all more or less woody, the great majority 

 being shrubs. Beyond New Zealand there is one shrubby Veronica in 

 Fuegia and the Falkland Islands, V. elliptica Forst. f., identical with or 

 closely related to one or other of that series of forms known as V. elliptica 

 in New Zealand, and V. formosa R. Br. and V. densifolia F. Muell. of 

 Tasmania and south-east Australia respectively. 



Leaving the herbaceous cushion plants, formerly referred to the genus 

 Pygmaea, on one side for the present, the remainder of the herbaceous 

 and suffruticose veronicas (Division Euveronica J. B. Armstg.) are dis- 

 tinguished by their didymous capsule. But the shrubby V. loganioides 

 J. B. Armstg. has a similar capsule. This plant resembles in many 

 respects a juvenile form of the whipcord section of Division I, Hebe. There 

 is another epharmonically similar plant, V. cassinioides Hort., which has a 

 capsule of the Hebe type, and which represents a fixed juvenile form of a 

 whipcord Veronica, such as that fixed or semi-fixed form of V . tetragona 

 Hook., which occurs occasionally on the volcanic plateau (see Plate V. 

 fig. 2). Still more is the relation to whipcord veronicas shown in the 

 toothed leaves of reversion shoots. With a broadening of leaf, a not un- 

 common occurrence, there is a close approach to V. buxifolia Benth. In. 

 considering the phylogeny of the species of Veronica the change from herb 

 to shrub would be epharmonic, as may now be seen in the series of forms 

 from just sufTruticose to almost shrubs. In such manner V . loganioides 

 might arise, and, the form of capsule changing by mutation, there would 

 be V . cassinioides, which on the one hand could develop by way of V . buxi- 

 folia into the mesophytic species, or through pressing of leaves to the stem, 

 and a certain amount of reduction, into the xerophytic whipcord forms. 

 Of course, I do not imagine these are the actual ancestral species, but it 

 does not seem absurd to take them as approximative to such. Some 

 further details may shed a little light on the matter. 



The shrubby veronicas fall into three epharmonic classes, using Cheese- 

 man's synopsis. The first would include from V. speciosa R. Cunn. to I*. 

 pimeleoides Hook, f., the second from V. Gilliesiana T. Kirk to V. uniflora 

 T. Kirk, and the third from V. macrantha Hook. f. to V. Raoulii Hook. f. 

 The first class shows a leaf gradually decreasing in size, and varying from 

 the willow form, broader or narrower as the case may be, to the small more 

 or less oblong or ovate leaf of so many of the subalpine species — that is. 

 there is a reduction of leaf-surface in accordance with increase of xerophytic 

 conditions. Where lowland species occupy xerophytic stations large leaves 

 are thickened in texture, as in V. Dicffenbachii Benth., V. speciosa R. Cunn., 

 and V. macroura Hook, f., all plants of coastal rocks ; or reduced and 

 thickened, as in V . chathamica Buch., another coastal-rock plant ; or much 



