360 Trayisactions. — Botany. 



•with which I correspond ; and such number is entered — with 

 an account of the environment of the plant from which the 

 seed was gathered — in a book kept for that purpose. The pots 

 are plunged in sand on the staging of an unheated greenhouse, 

 at no great distance from the glass. The germination of each 

 species is recorded as it occurs. So soon as the cotyledons are 

 developed a magnified drawing is made of them, and a descrip- 

 tion written ; and further descriptions are written and draw- 

 ings, magnified or not as the case may be, together \\\i\x 

 nature prints and photographs, are made of the succeeding 

 leaves as they develope. This is kept up until the plant as- 

 sumes its final form, when it is planted in the garden, or 

 potted and kept in a shade -house for reference, &c. Of 

 course, these proceedings take up a good deal of time, so the 

 work is slow, very few of the New Zealand plants being of 

 quick growth ; the seeds, too, are often slow to germinate. 

 So, without w^aiting for the full results in each particular 

 case, I propose to publish from time to time, in future parts, 

 my results up to date. Nor can there be any systematic 

 arrangement, since plants of most varied natural orders are 

 ready for description at the same time. 



Of course, seedlings grown under such artificial conditions 

 may not be identical with those which occur spontaneously 

 in their natural habitats, and I am in the habit of collecting, 

 describing, potting, and noting the changes of the latter, if 

 any, or the differences from the artificial seedling. Dr. Dendy 

 has suggested to me that the first stage of an artificial 

 seedling's existence should not differ in form from one grow- 

 ing naturally, since the embryo in the collected seed was 

 developed under its natural environment, but that a seedling 

 raised from cultivated seed might well show some difference. 

 This suggestion is most interesting, and the differences be- 

 tween two such seedlings should be carefully noted. 



The environment of the wild seedling will, when possible, 

 be described, since this differs in much from that of its 

 parent ; and although, as I pointed oi;t above, most seedling 

 forms are in all probability ancestral, yet at the same time 

 they may also be adaptations for the benefit of the young 

 plant. Abundance or the contrary of the seedlings of any 

 species, the struggle for existence between the same or dif- 

 ferent species, and other matters which bear on my subject 

 will be dealt with in due course. 



I cannot conclude this paper without referring to my 

 friend, our member, Mr. R. Brown. Some years ago he read 

 a paper on the leaves of the whip-cord Veronicas before the 

 Horticultural Society, which was, however, somewhat incor- 

 rectly published. His views, which in many respects differ 

 widely from mine, have influenced my thoughts in no small 



