Tas. 7415, 
VERONICA Heocrort. 
Native of New Zealand. 
Nat. Ord. ScropHuLARINEZ.—Tribe DiciITaLEe, 
Genus Veronica, Linn. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 964.) 
Veronica (Hebe) Hectori; fructiculus robustus, ramosus, ramulis elongatis 
erectis teretiusculis, foliis per paria connatis appresse imbricatis late 
ovatis v. orbiculari-ovatis obtusis crassis pinctulatis dorso convexis 
ecarinatis, junioribus ciliolatis, floribus in capitula terminalia aggregatis 
axillis, summis sessilibus, bracteis foliis conformibus sed paullo latioribus, 
sepalis lineari-oblongis obtusis ciliatis, corolla albw tubo calyce vix 
longiore, limbi lobis 3 oblongis obtusis, antico angustiore, antheris 
rubro purpureis, ovario glaberrimo, capsula sepalis equilonga. 
V. Hectori, Hook. f. Handb. N. Zeald. Flora, p. 212. Armstr.in Trans. New 
Zeald, Institute, vol. xiii. (1885), p. 352. 
V. Hectori belongs to the group of New Zealand Speed- 
wells, which includes V. lycopodioides (tab. 7338), V. 
tetragona (Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 580), and a few others, 
characterized by the short, thickly coriaceous, scale-like, 
densely imbricating leaves, often united by thin bases into 
a two-lipped cup. In most of the species of this group 
the branches are more less tetragonous, from the leaves 
being dorsally keeled, but in V. Hectort the branches are 
nearly terete, from the leaves being dorsally rounded. — 
From both the above-named species V. Hectort differs in 
the very small flowers and broader sepals. 
The discoverers of this species, which is confined, as far 
as is known, to the Alps of Otago, in the southern province 
of the Southern Island of New Zealand, were Sir James 
Hector, F.R.S., and Mr. Buchanan, who describe it as the 
largest shrub at elevations of 7000 to 8000 feet in the 
Lake district, growing about two feet in height; and also 
as forming low, rigid, spreading patches, which “crackle 
under the feet.” In its native country it flowers in April 
and May, months answering to October and November in 
ours, whereas it flowered in Edinburgh in July ; an apparent 
anomaly probably due to the elevation of its native habitat. 
May Ist, 1895, : 
