of the flower! That of V. nivea I know to be white with 
pink veins, and others of this section have pale violet-blue 
or pinkish flowers; probably this character is a variable 
one. The indigenous specimens which accord most nearly 
with our figure in their erect woody habit, were gathered 
by Dr. Lyall, R.N. (after whom the species was named), at 
- Milford Sound, when exploring the New Zealand islands as 
surgeon and naturalist attached to H.M.S. Acheron, which 
was surveying the coast. : 
V. Lyallii was raised from seed by my indefatigable 
friend, Mr. Isaac Anderson Henry, F.S.A., and flowered 
with him in May of the present year for the first time. 
Drsor. A slender suberect or creeping branching plant, — 
glabrous or with the stem pubescent; branches rather 
woody, prostrate and rooting or ascending. Leaves small, 
one-half to two-thirds of an inch long, shortly petioled, 
coriaceous, usually ovate and acute, coarsely serrate. Pe- 
duneles solitary, or in pairs in opposite axils (one in each), 
very slender, erect, three to five inches long. tacemes 
glabrous, few or many flowered, continuous or interrupted ; 
pedicels very slender, one-half to one inch long; bracts 
variable, small, green, coriaceous, ovate-oblong or obovate. 
Flowers one-third to one-half an inch in diameter. Sepals 
ovate-oblong, acute. Corolla rotate, white, with the veins 
pink near the throat; lobes orbicular, the lateral largest, 
the anterior smallest. Stamens shorter than the corolla- 
lobes, filaments slender, glabrous; anthers pale purplish. 
Ovary glabrous, oblong, compressed. Capsule didymous, 
valves turgid, about equalling the sepals.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, flower viewed in front; 2, calyx, pedicel, andstyle ; 3,stamen; 4, pistil :— 
all enlarged. 
