29 
some of the long-sought-for varieties might 
be found. Mr Young was ever ready to 
help, and did all that was asked from him 
in his most genial and happy style. An old 
label of Ligustrifolia, a plant that 1s much 
desired at Wetherstones, was found in 
the gardens at Christchurch. | Apparentiy 
the plant had been growing there at one 
time. Many cuttings were brought away 
labelied Ligustrifolia by the searchers, but 
when grown at Wetherstones they proved 
to be the wrong thing, showing that if you 
put the name of apple on a cabbage plant 
there is no chance of it developing into 
anything else but a cabbage. 
Visits were paid to the Timaru and 
Oamaru public gardens. In the former 
place the searchers were given_a free hand, 
and that lovely plant, Diosmaefolia Trisepla, 
was got from Mr D. Harper, the caretaker, 
who has a very fine lot of veronicas grow- 
ing under his care. Oamaru Gardens were 
searched from one end of the garden to 
the other, and as the grounds are of some 
extent, hours and hours at different times 
were spent exploring every nook and corner 
in the place. 
The Queenstown Gardens, then in charge 
of Mr W. Wilcox, supplied many species 
now at Wetherstones. Mr Wilcox spent 
much time in visiting the old gardens in 
Otago in search of New Zealand plants, 
and was extremely successful. He also 
climbed the mountains around Queenstown, 
and was rewarded by getting several new 
species of veronica, one of which bears his 
name, Wilcoxi, and it is certainly a very 
distinct and decorative little bush. At 
Queenstown were also got V. Macrocarpa 
and its varieties. This has been the most 
dificult and complex assortment Messrs 
Hart and Darton have had to diagnose, 
owing to the similarity of the plants to 
other varieties. Eventually they brought 
order out of chaos. Mr Wilcox left no 
names on his plants when leaving Queens- 
town. This was certainly not altogether 
his fault, but was more due to the de- 
structive label vandal, who, when visiting 
our public gardens, takes a keen delight in 
changing labels from one bush to another, 
