Veronica. | SCROPHULARINES. 491 
Veronica presents great difficulties to the systematist. Many of the species 
are singularly protean in habit, foliage, and inflorescence, varying so much in 
appearance that it is no easy matter to fix their real limits. Intermediate 
forms are numerous, connecting species that would otherwise appear most 
distinct, and in not a few cases these intermediates blend so freely into one 
another that an apparently continuous series of forms is produced, while several 
species hybridise so readily in cultivation that the supposition at once arises 
that natural hybrids may also occur. So great has been the difficulty in 
‘deciding what are the limits of the species, and in properly characterizing them, 
that the late Baron Mueller, in his little book on the vegetation of the Chatham 
Islands, boldly proposed to solve the question by referring no less than 13 of the 
species considered to be distinct by Hooker to a collective species to which he 
gave the new name of V. Forsteri! It is hardly necessary to say that this 
extreme view has not received the sanction of any botanist familiar with the 
vegetation of the colony. 
Two papers of considerable importance dealing with the New Zealand 
species have appeared since the publication of the Handbook. ‘The first is 
Mr. Armstrong’s ‘‘ Synopsis of the New Zealand Species of Veronica ’’ (Trans. 
N.Z. Inst. xiii. 344). This is mainly based on observations made during the 
author’s explorations in the Alps of Canterbury, and on the study of the fine 
collection of living plants which he had amassed in the Christchurch Botanical 
Gardens. It contains descriptions of a considerable number of new species, and 
many observations of value. Unfortunately, Mr. Armstrong did not distribute 
types of his new species, so that in some cases their identification is uncertain. 
The second is Mr. Kirk’s ‘‘ Notes on certain Veronicas” (Trans. N.Z. Inst. 
XXvVili. 515). In this Mr. Kirk transfers to the genus those species which had 
been erroneously placed in Logania and Mitrasacme by previous authors. 
Descriptions are also given of five or six new forms, in addition to much new 
matter bearing on the geographical distribution, &c., of the species already 
known. Another contribution of considerable value consists of the coloured 
drawings and descriptions published from time to time by Sir J. D. Hooker in 
the Botanical Magazine. Altogether, about 20 species have been beautifully 
illustrated and described by him, the value of the descriptions being enhanced 
by the critical notes which accompany them. Since the publication of the 
Handbook, too, the important fact has been made known by Kirk and others 
that the whole of the species with minute scale-like leaves (answering to Sec- 
tion III. of the following conspectus) have dimorphic foliage, the leaves of 
the young state being widely different from those of the mature plant. It has 
also been shown that these early leaves are often produced by reversion on old 
specimens, especially when cultivated in a cool and moist situation. The 
student will find the early leaves of several species fully described in the excel- 
lent series of papers on the ‘‘ Seedling Forms of New Zealand Phznogams,”’’ 
contributed by Mr. Cockayne to the recent volumes of the Transactions of the 
New Zealand Institute. 
: I have followed the ‘‘ Genera Plantarum’’ and Engler and Prantl’s 
‘* Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien’’ in reducing Hooker’s genus Pygmea to 
Veronica, the differences of a 5- or 6-lobed corolla and leaves not quadrifariously 
arranged hardly being of generic importance, especially now that it is known 
that several true Veronicas have a 5-lobed corolla. The arrangement and limita- 
tion of the species, and the preparation of the necessary diagnoses, has proved to 
be a most difficult and perplexing task, and I am far from satisfied with the 
result. But, imperfect though it may be, it represents many months’ assiduous 
study, and the examination of some thousands of specimens, and is, at any rate, 
an honest effort to clear away some of the difficulties which have hitherto 
impeded the study of the genus. I have to acknowledge the great assistance 
rendered to me by Mr. N. E. Brown, of the Kew Herbarium, in comparing sets 
of my specimens with the types preserved at Kew, and for many full and valuable 
notes thereon. 
