Cockayne. — Regrou-th of Burnt Forest. 417 



7. That certain low-growing, creeping shrubs, notably 

 Coprosina serrulata, Hook, f., and to a lesser extent G. raimo- 

 loaa, Petrie, multiply by stolons to an astonishing extent, and 

 become quite a new feature in the vegetation. 



8. That certain shrubs specified in the foregoing notes, 

 when burnt to the ground, readily spring up again from the 

 old stock. 



9. That the seedlings most frequent under the growing 

 scrub are not the same species as those which appear in the 

 open most abundantly after a fire. 



10. That .Dracophyllum traversn,''' Hook, f., is completely 

 eradicated by fire; also that Dacrydium colemoi, Hook, f., 

 and Phyllocladus alpinus, Hook, f., are almost eradicated. 



11. That, owing to certain shrubs no longer playing a 

 leading part in the vegetation, the colours of a mountain-side 

 would be changed after reproduction of the vegetation. 



Why certain shrubs should not bi reproduced, and others 

 reproduce themselves so readily, or even usurp ground not 

 originally their own, brings me from the region of fact to 

 that of conjecture. Veron:ca, the most striking example of 

 this, has always seemed to me a genus in which the species 

 are not yet completely difi'erentiated.i The late J. Ball, 

 F.E.S., held similar views with regard to Escallonia, Buhus, 

 Hteracmm, SoUdago, and other genera. Writing of Escallonia, 

 he says, "It is easy to find specimens not exactly agreeing 

 with any of the described species, and to light upon inter- 

 mediate forms that seem to connect what appeared to be quite 

 distinct species. They afford an example of a fact which I 

 believe must be distinctly recognised by writers on systematic 

 botany — that in the various regions of the earth there are 

 some groups of vegetable forms in which the processes by 

 which species are segregated are yet incomplete, and amid 

 the throng of closely allied forms the suppression of those 

 least adapted to the conditions of life has not advanced 

 far enough to differentiate those which can be defined and 

 marked by a specific name. To the believer in evolution it 

 must be evident that at some period in the history of each 

 generic group there must have occurred an interval during 

 which species as we know them did not exist.":]: 



* Of this no seedlings were noted, but on the more wesbern moun- 

 tains seedlings are not uncommon, in association with mature plants. 



t The specieri of Veronica as described by various botanists vary so 

 much that no good key to the New Zealand species has as yet been pub- 

 lished. In one gully on Mount Torlesse I have collected thirty quite 

 distinct forms of Veronica odora, many of which are so distinct in 

 appearance that a systematic botanist unacquainted with this variability 

 would at once assign to them specific rank ; and so with most of the 

 other species as now known. 



\ " Notes of a Naturalist in South America," by John Ball, F.R.S. 

 (p. 181). 

 27 



