19 
world. not only of this land, but of the 
central domains of science in Great Britain, 
the Continent, and other sands. 
2 * * * 
Leonard Cockayne in his early days was 
a teacher under the Otago Education 
Board, and while stationed at Allanton im 
the Taier1 was led to the study of botany 
by the perusal of a book on New Zea- 
land ferns. Circumstances enabled him 
to leave the teaching profession, and he 
settled in Christchurch. In pursuit of his 
botanical studies, which soon became a 
hobby with him, and which he followed 
with characteristic energy, he started a 
collection of native plants in a_ small 
property he acquired in the southern alpine 
district. When Dr Diels published his 
paper on the botanical oecology of New 
Zealand in 1896, much of his information 
and material was derived from Mr 
Cockayne, who had travelled extensively in 
the Canterbury Alps. This branch of biologi- 
eal work, which deals with the habits, modes 
of life, relation to their surroundings, and 
distribution of organisms, wags new _ to 
British botanists, and Mr Cockayne was 
practically the first to apply it, though his 
example has been greatly followed since. 
His first paper on a botanical subject was 
on the freezing of alpine plants, and 1t 
appeared in the “Transaction of the New 
Zealand Institute’? in 1897. This was fol- 
lowed by three valuable and original papers 
“On the seedling forms of New Zealand 
Phanerogams and their development,’’ in 
which, among others, he discusses the de- 
velopment and origin of the species of 
veronica. His first oecological paper, read 
in 1889, was ‘‘Plant Geography of the Wai- 
makariri River Basin,’’ and it was followed 
by many others which dealt with a large 
portion of the country. Altogether, he 
has contributed some $85 papers to the 
Transactions of the Instiute, has produced 
several important botanical surveys and re- 
ports for the Government, and has pub- 
lished the most interesting book ever 
written on New Zealand botany—‘‘New 
Zealand Plants and Their Story.” The 
first edition appeared in 1910, and the 
