Armstrong. — On the Genus Veronica. 347 



may be seen in the numerous varieties of the rose, the pelargonium, the 

 gladiokis, and other florist's flowers which have been produced by the inter- 

 crossing of allied species. In all these florist-flowers — the results of arti- 

 ficial hybridization — immense numbers of seedlings are raised every year, 

 and I have been assured by experienced cultivators, and indeed I have 

 myself observed, that very rarely indeed does it happen that any two of 

 these seedlings are exactly alike. 



But with our Veronicas the case is different. I have been enabled to 

 observe numerous garden-seedlings of many of the forms, and they almost 

 invariably resemble their parents. Sometimes, however, sports appear, 

 and when this happens there seems to be a strong tendency on the part of 

 the sport to reproduce itself, and it appears to me that it is just in this 

 manner that the greater number of our native forms have been produced. 



At some very distant date there were probably only two or three, perhaps 

 only one, species existing within the limits of the colony ; but, on account of 

 the extreme local variations of climate and varied geological formation of 

 surface, certain variations occurred, and the sport so produced, being self- 

 fertile, and having within itself all the elements required for reproduction, 

 naturally reproduced its like until another such sport occurred, and thus the 

 forms gradually became differentiated from the type, and by a long series of 

 such sports our large family of Veronicas has been formed. 



I think that this theory, coupled in some cases (as in dioecious plants) 

 with the theory of natural hybridization, will be found to apply to all large 

 variable genera in all countries, but that in those countries which have been 

 long inhabited by man or the larger animals the intermediate forms will be 

 found to have been exterminated through their agency, leaving only in 

 most cases the more widely differentiated forms. « 



In New Zealand, however, and particularly in the South island, where 

 the natural features of the country had not been very materially altered by 

 the agency of man up to the period of Em'opean colonization, very many 

 of the intermediate forms have been preserved. The remarkably rapid 

 destruction of our native forests, and the alteration of the features of 

 the country brought about by European colonists, is but the reflex of 

 what has happened in other lands, and it behoves the colonists of the 

 present time to record carefully all the information obtainable as to the 

 introduction and naturalization of exotic plants, and their variations under 

 the influence of our climate, and also to carefully collect and examme all 

 the existing forms of endemic plants before the ever -recurring changes ren- 

 der them extmct. I am of course aware that this theory will be strongly 

 objected to, and I wish it to be understood that I am not in anyway wedded 

 to it, but in my opinion no other theory yet propounded so well accounts 



