Hector.—On Earthquakes and Wave Phenomena. 35 
possess similar climatal and other physical conditions, and always present- 
ing the same general appearance. 
I therefore believe that even should a complete suite of all the Veronicas 
found in this country exhibit a gradual and almost imperceptible passage 
from one extreme to the other, this may properly be referred to the fact 
that we have, condensed within the narrow area of the Middle Island, a 
variety of geological and of resulting climatal and other physical conditions 
only to be found in an immensely wider area elsewhere, and that hence all 
the observed varieties. may in great measure be assigned to the modifying 
influences of varying external causes. 
The above observations will apply equally to Pimelias, Veronicas, Celmisias, 
and Epilobiwms at least. In none of these have I seen that tendency to 
"sport" which results from hybridization under domestication. In all, 
where the external conditions are the same, I observed a nearly perfect 
identity in the more prominent specific characters of the plants, however 
distant the localities in which they may be found, and whether associated 
with other species or not, and for these reasons I ventured to express my 
opinion that the varieties observed did not result from hybridization. 
The foregoing was the general argument used by me in addressing Dr. 
Hooker on the subject under discussion, and I may now add that although 
we cannot, consistently with observed facts and with the laws fairly deduc- 
ible from those facts, reject hybridization as one of the agents concerned in 
the production of new forms in a state of nature, we are not warranted in 
assuming that it is an active agent. That, on the contrary, we are rather 
justified in believing that, except under domestication, hybridization plays 
but a very small part in producing permanent modifications of structure. 
Amr. IV.—0On the recent Earthquakes and Wave Phenomena observed in 
New Zealand. By James Hector, M.D., F.R.S, Director of the 
Geological Survey of New Zealand. 
: (Plate L) 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 25th August, 1868.] 
One of the most important. duties of the members of a local scientific 
society such as this, is to obtain accurate records of phenomena of a tran- 
sient character, like the disturbances of the tides and the earthquakes by 
which this Colony was visited between the 14th and 18th of August, 1868. 
I have, therefore, attempted to collect together, in the following communi- 
cation, the observations which were made in different places, so far as they 
have been already ascertained; and although they are deficient in many 
