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montane or ne oe them descending below 1000 ft. altitude; 17 are both 
lowland and montane; 14 are purely lowland, but do not evince any special predilection 
for the sea-coast ; while 13 are never seen far from the sea. 
Veronica presents great difficulties to the systematist. Many of the species are 
singularly protean in habit, foliage, and inflorescence, varying so much in appearance 
that it is no easy matter to fix their real limits. Intermediate forms are numerous, 
connecting species that would otherwise appear most distinct, and in not a few cases 
these intermediates blend so freely into one another that an apparently continuous 
series of forms is produced, while several species hybridize so readily in cultivation that 
the supposition at once arises that natural hybrids may also oceur. So great has been 
the difficulty in deciding what are the limits of the species, and in properly characterizing 
them, that the late Baron Mueller, in his little book on the vegetation of the Chatham 
Islands, boldly proposed to solve the question by referring no less than 13 of the 
species considered to be distinct by Hooker to a collective species to which he gave 
the new name of V. Forsteri/ It is hardly necessary to say that this extreme view 
has not received the sanction of any botanist familiar with the vegetation of the 
Dominion. . 
Two papers of considerable importance dealing with the New Zealand species 
appeared shortly after the publication of the Handbook. The first is Mr. Armstrong’s 
‘Synopsis of the New Zealand Species of Veronica” (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii (1881) 344). 
This is mainly based on observations made during the author’s explorations in the 
Alps of Canterbury, and on the study of the fine collection of living plants which he 
had amassed in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. It contains descriptions of a 
considerable number of new species, and many observations of value. Unfortunately, 
Mr. Armstrong did not distribute types of his new species, so that in some cases their 
identification is uncertain. The second is Mr. Kirk’s ‘‘ Notes on certain Veronicas ”’ 
(Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii (1896) 515). In this Mr. Kirk transfers to the genus those 
species which had been erroneously placed in Logania and Mitrasacme by previous 
authors. Descriptions are also given of five or six new forms, in addition to much 
new matter bearing on the geographical distribution, &c., of the species already 
known. Another contribution of considerable value consists of the ccloured drawings 
and descriptions published from time to time by Sir J. D. Hooker in the Botanical 
Magazine. Altogether, about 20 species have been beautifully illustrated and described 
by him, the value of the descriptions being enhanced by the critical notes which 
accompany them. Since the publication of the Handbook, too, the important fact 
has been made known by Kirk and others that the whole of the species with minute 
_gcale-like leaves (answering to Section III of the following conspectus) have dimorphic 
foliage, the leaves of the young state being widely different from those of the mature 
plant. It has also been shown that these early leaves are often produced by reversion 
on old specimens, especially when cultivated in a cool and moist situation. The 
student will find the early leaves of several species fully described in the excellent 
series of papers on the “Seedling Forms of New Zealand Phaenogams,”’ contributed 
by Dr. Cockayne to past volumes of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. 
Herewith I have mainly followed the arrangement adopted in the first edition of 
this work, with such deviations as the progress of discovery and the advance of 
botanical science have rendered advisable. The great activity with which the genus 
has been studied of late years has naturally led to a considerable increase in the 
number of the species, the 84 species of 1906 having now advanced to 103. The 
arrangement and limitation of the species, and the preparation of the necessary 
diagnoses, has proved to be a most difficult and perplexing task, and I am far from 
satisfied with the result. But, imperfect though it may be, it represents many months’ 
assiduous study, and the examination of some thousands of specimens, and is, at any 
rate, an honest effort to clear away some of the difficulties which impede the study of 
the genus. 
Students using the conspectus should bear in mind that the characters employed 
are in many cases arbitrary ones selected to show how the dominant forms of a certain 
species differ from those of another species, and do not always include the entire range 
of variation of a species. Plants like V. salicifolia, macrocarpa, parviflora, Traversit, 
huxifolia, pinguifolia, &c., which run into numberless varieties, are probably quite 
incapable of rigid definition. 
It should be mentioned that several species from the Northern Hemisphere have 
become naturalized in New Zealand, the most abundant being V. serpyllifolia, V. arvensis, 
V. agrestis, and V. persica. Descriptions of these will be found in any British Flora. 
