Cockayne. — Development of Seedlings. 383 



Waterfall Creek, Craigieburn Mountains, by A. H. Cockayne, 

 at altitude of 700 m. Seed germinated in about six weeks. 



Description of Seedling. 



Plants very small, with stem hidden by the close-set 

 patent shining leaves. 



Eoot descending, fleshy, with very few lateral rootlets. 



Cotyledons ovate, 2mm. long, acute, brownish-green above, 

 pink beneath, furnished with many minute scales ; petioles 

 short, subterete, flat or slightly channelled above. 



Leaves broadly spathulate, extremely succulent, green, 

 subacute, scaly as cotyledon, patent ; petiole two-thirds length 

 of lamina, translucent, subterete, channelled above, connate 

 at base, ciliated on margin with a few transparent hairs. 



Stem very succulent, translucent, terete ; interuodes very 

 short (in plant with three pairs of leaves), 0-75 mm. or less. 



Veronica linifolia grows on wet rocks, often in almost 

 perfect shade, in moist river-gorges. The succulent seedling 

 seems rather out of place under such circumstances until one 

 bears in mind that even in a region so wet as the western 

 side of the Southern Alps a drought of a few days makes the 

 ground wonderfully dry, and a plant exposed normally to 

 much wet would suffer extremely unless provided with a 

 water-supply. Figs. 52 and 53, Plate XXXIV., show the 

 differences between the juvenile and adult leaves. 



Veronica macroura, Hook. f. Plate XXXIII. , figs. 36, 37, 



38, 39, 40, 41, 42. 



The plant from whose seed the seedlings described below 

 were raised was kindly sent to me some years ago by Mr. 

 T. Kirk, F.L.S., under that name ; its leaves, however, do 

 not agree with the description in tbe " Handbook of the New 

 Zealand Flora," page 207, being ovate or ovate-oblong, al- 

 most or quite sessile, and rounded at the base, subapiculate, 

 minutely ciliated ; but the slender pubescent slightly curved 

 racemes agree with Hooker's description. Whether it be the 

 true V. macroura or not, it reproduces itself quite true from 

 seed, and is most certainly a distinct species. 



Description of Seedling. 



(Drawn up from self-sown seedling plants in Tarata 

 Garden.) 



Eoot wiry, giving off numerous rootlets equalling the 

 primary root. 



Hypocotyle short, terete, minutely pubescent. 



Cotyledons oblong, fleshy, entire, obtuse, dotted with 

 minute scales ; laminae 3 mm. x 2 mm.; petioles 2 mm. long, 

 flat, connate at base. 



