Tas. 6456. 
VERONICA LYALLII. 
Natwwe of New Zealand. 
Nat. Ord. ScropHuLaRrInEx.—Tribe Dia1TaLeZ. 
Genus Veronica, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen, Pl. vol. ii. p. 964.) 
Veronica (Chamedrys) Lyallii ; glabra v. parce puberula, caulibus gracilibus 
erectis v. repentibus rigidulis, foliis parvis breviter petiolatis ovatis acutis 
serratis coriaceis, pedunculis axillaribus erectis elongatis gracilibus glabris pauci- 
v. multifloris, floribus racemosis, racemis continuis v. interruptis, bracteis 
sessilibus ovatis obovatis oblongisve, pedicellis gracilibus elongatis, sepalis 
oblongo-ovatis acutis, corolla rotata, lobis omnibus orbiculatis 2 lateralibus 
postico paullo majoribus, antico minore integro, staminibus brevibus, capsula 
didyma sepala equantibus v. superantibus, lobis turgidis. 
V. Lyallii, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zeald. vol. i. p. 196; Handb. of New Zeald. Fi. 
p- 215 
A singularly elegant plant, and one which, considering 
its wide range in New Zealand, might have been expected 
to have been introduced long before this. I believe it to 
be a form of the very variable V. Lyallii, which approaches 
closely to V. cataracte, V. Bidwillii, and V. nivalis, if, 
indeed, some of these species are really specifically distinct. 
Most of our native specimens have the stems creeping, as 
in our V. Chamedrys, but a few have them more woody and 
suberect, as in the plant here figured. It inhabits both the 
larger islands of New Zealand, at elevations of 2000 feet 
and upwards; and we have specimens which cannot be 
distinguished specifically in a dry state, gathered by Colenso 
on rocky cliffs at Patea, and from the top of the Ruahine 
mountains. From its near ally, V. nivea (erroneously 
called nivalis in the Handbook of the New Zealand Flora), 
it differs in the eglandular inflorescence, slender peduncle, 
and 2-lobed anterior corolla-lobe, from V. catavacte in its 
much smaller leaves. It is curious that amongst no fewer 
than twenty-eight ticketed specimens from various collectors, 
not one of the latter has recorded on the ticket the colour 
OCTOBER lst, 1879. 
