Cockayne. — On Subalpinn Scnob of Mount Fyffe. 371 



times a most characteristic feature of this latter species. Al- 

 though these distinctions are apparently trivial, they are suf- 

 ficient to keep the two forms distinct from one another; and, 

 although they may approach within a kilometre or two of one 

 another, they are not found mixed together.* 



The two veronicas, V. traversii and V. leiophylla, are not 

 especially xerophytic. It is true they are not so hygrophytic 

 in form as Veronica salicifolia and its allies, but they show 

 no very special adaptations for the conditions of life of a sub- 

 alpine scrub. On the other hand, such conditions in the scrub 

 under consideration do not seem to require very special adapta- 

 tions, and the extreme xerophylly of Olearia coriacea is out of 

 place. Even the other xerophytes could endure much severer 

 conditions ; and it seems here that we have another case of 

 what I have pointed out several times in previous papers f — viz., 

 that such xerophytic structure is a survival from a former 

 geological period when large areas of New Zealand were ex- 

 tremely arid. 



Xerophytic structures are still more out of place on the 

 floor of the subalpine scrub, and the list given above shows 

 that such are hardly present. The only plant of special interest 

 to be noted is the Ranunculus lobulatus. This was referred 

 by Kirk to Ran. insignis as var. lobulatus, but he had never 

 seen the flowers, and, as he showed, the leaves are very dis- 

 tinct from those of R. insignis. To my mind it is a well-marked 

 species, and its affinities seem rather with R. munroi than with 

 R. insignis. The leaves are large, with long but comparatively 

 slender petioles. The laminae are thin, reniform-orbicular, 

 narrowly lobed, bright-green on the upper surface, pale be- 

 neath, variable in hairiness, but usually glabrous or nearly so 

 on the upper surface, but with more or less very fine white hairs 

 on the under surface and the petiole. Frequently the sinus 

 at the base of the leaf is closed, and all sorts of transitions to- 

 wards a peltate leaf ensue. The seedling has the first leaves 

 quite entire, and with a cuneate base ; the next leaves have an 

 apical lobe ; later leaves develop two lateral lobes, and the base 

 becomes rounded and shows traces of a sinus. Evidently the 

 young leaves are arrested stages of the adults. A large leaf 

 may measure (lamina) 17 cm. by 15 - 5 cm., petiole 25 cm. There 

 were a few flower-buds on some of the plants, and one had a 

 flower nearly open. The sepals are broad, with a notched 



* Cockayne, L., " On the Seedling Forms of New Zealand Phane- 

 rogams," &c. (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxiii, p. 272, 1901). 



f Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxiii, pp. 277-82, 1900; Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xxxvi, p. 251, 1904 ; and " The New Phytologist," vol. iv, No. 4, April, 

 1905, pp. 84, 85. 



