DISTRIBUTION OF VARIETIES. 199 
years ago, obviously is extremely rare; its rediscovery is greatly 
desired, and it is probably to be found only somewhere at the 
southern end of the Kaimanawa Range. Cases such as the above 
are generally more readily explained on the supposition that the 
species are of recent origin than that they are of great age and 
dying out. 
With regard to distribution, it has been, in the past, only the 
ageregate which has been considered. This has arisen from the 
facts that varieties are looked upon by many as of little moment 
(“mere varieties’ they are styled), and also that, in the majority 
of cases, the aggregate has not been studied sufficiently and split 
up into those component parts (varieties) which, as explained in 
Chapter X, are the realities, and come “ true’ from seed, to use the 
gardeners’ expressive term. This matter of coming true from seed 
can, of course, be definitely proved only by experiment; but here 
it is assumed that if a distinct race occurs in more than one area, 
and that there is no suspicion of its being a hybrid, then this 
race is considered to be pure. 
That great aggregate species, the common koromiko (Veronica 
salicifolia), has been studied recently with some degree of care, and 
it has come to light that distinct true-breeding races (varieties) have 
each their special area of distribution. Thus, without troubling the 
reader with the names proposed for these races, it appears that 
there is one or more distinct variety for the following areas: The 
North Auckland Botanical District ; Mount Egmont and its environs ; 
the Egmont-Wanganui Botanical District ; the swamps of the River 
Manawatu; the Otaki Gorge; the southern part of the Ruahine- 
Cook District and its South Island extension; the part of the 
South Island east of the Dividing Range generally; the swamps 
of the Western Botanical District. Then there are the closely 
allied V. gigantea of the Chatham Islands, V. breviracemosa of the 
Kermadec Islands, and a short-leaved variety originally found in 
the neighbourhood of the Upper Rangitata in Canterbury, but recently 
collected on Mount Peel by Mr. H. H. Allan. In a case such as the 
above, who can doubt the youth of these varieties, or that evolution 
is still hard at work with the Veronica salicifolia group ? 
A case where a somewhat greater degree of stability (v.e., of age) 
comes in is with regard to Leucopogon fasciculatus. No one has 
suggested, so far, that this species is an aggregate, or “ variable,” 
