Aemstbong. — Oil the Genus Veronica. 345 



Although so many fine hardy shrubs have been introduced into our 

 gardens from Japan and other countries, none of them are equal to very 

 many of our native Veronicas, and it is to be hoped that these will in the 

 future receive the attention they so justly merit at our hands as the finest 

 known group of hardy shrubs, and that the foolish prejudice which now 

 prevails among amateur horticulturists against all native plants will soon 

 be given up. I have been induced to draw up the following synopsis of the 

 New Zealand species because, having had such excellent opportunities of 

 studying the species in the living state in the Christchurch Botanic Garden, 

 where my father has succeeded in forming the largest existing living collec- 

 tion of sjpecies belonging to this genus, I have probably been able to give 

 more careful attention to the subject than any other New Zealand botanist. 

 It must not, however, be supposed that my synopsis is drawn up from culti- 

 vated plants alone. On the contrary, I have examined no fewer than 4,000 

 or 5,000 dried specimens, from all parts of the colony, and their characters 

 have been noted down and compared with those of the living plants, and 

 with Sir Joseph Hooker's excellent descriptions in the " Handbook of the 

 N.Z. Flora;" and again in my numerous botanical exploring journeys I 

 have had ample opportunities for examining the living plants of very many 

 of the species in the wild state. 



By following this course I have been able to detect several errors in the 

 nomenclature usually adopted in gardens and museums. 



In such a genus as this, however, where so much depends on habit, etc., 

 dried specimens are often misleading, and consequently I have found our 

 collection of living plants of the very greatest service, and indeed I should 

 not have attempted to form this conspectus without it. It is a matter for 

 regret that so little attention is given to living plants by botanists, as in 

 many cases, more especially in New Zealand plants, descriptions drawn up 

 from dried specimens very often fail to agree with the same plant in the 

 fresh state. It must be admitted that whenever possible living plants 

 should be studied in preference to dried ones by all persons attempting to 

 write on the flora of a country. In a work which I have in preparation, 

 entitled a " Manual of New Zealand Botany," I am attempting to carry out 

 this idea, with what amount of success will I trust be seen in the future. 



The cause of the difficulty experienced in studying the New Zealand 

 species of this genus is to be found in their extreme variableness. There 

 is not a single character which does not vary greatly in some one or other 

 of the species, and in many of them the whole of the parts are subject to 

 constant variation. It is not, however, pretended that Veronica is the only 

 variable New Zealand genus ; on the contrary, there is not in the colony a 

 single genus of any magnitude which does not vary greatly, but in none is 



44 



