‘Tas. 7656. 
VERONICA Dterrensacuit. 
Native of the Chatham Islands. 
Nat. Ord. ScROPHULARINEX.—Tribe DrerraLe2. 
Genus Veronica, Linn.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 964.) 
Veronica (Hebe) Dieffenbachii; frutex glaber v. puberulus, ramosns, ramis 
elongatis divaricatis teretibus viridibus, foliis 3—-4-pollicaribus sessilibus 
patenti-recurvis lineari-oblongis acutis coriaceis enerviis basi late cor- 
datis semiamplexicaulibus costa valida marginibus recurvis supra 
levibus subtus pallidis, racemis axillaribus oppositis foliis squilongis 
breviter pedunculatis cylindraceis obtusis densifloris,-rhachi robusto 
viridi, floribus parvis, pedicellis ad 3 poll. longis basi bracteis minutis 
ovatis instructis, sepalis , poll. longis ovata oblongis obtusis ciliolatis, 
corollze lilacinze tubo peas be duplo longiore, limbi } poll. lati lobis 
lateralibus et dorsali orbiculatis, antico minore, filamentis corolle 
lobis paullo longioribus, antheris oblongis ceruleis, stylo brevi, capsulis 
parvis ovatis obtusis dorso compressis, seminibus orbiculatis plano- 
convexis. 
V. Dieffenbachii, Benth. in DC. Prodr. vol. x. p. 459. Hook. f. Fl. Nov. 
Zel. vol. i. p. 191; Handb. Fl. NN. Zeal. p. 206. F. Muell. Vegetation 
of Chatham Isids. (sub V. salicifolia) p. 45. Armstrong in Trans. J. 
Zeal. Instit. vol. xiii. (1880) p. 351. Kirk, l.c. xxviii. (1895) p. 531. 
Gard. Chron, 1898, vol. ii. p. 154, fig. 41. 
A very handsome and well-marked, shrubby Speedwell, 
confined to the Chatham Islds., where it was discovered by 
Dr. Dieffenbach, the first naturalist who visited that in- 
teresting dependency of New Zealand, now nearly sixty 
years ago. Asa species it stands between J. speciosa, R. 
Cunn. (see tab. 4057), and V. macroura, Hook. f. (a plant 
not hitherto figured), and, as I have observed in FI. Nov. 
Zel., it quite resembles what a cross between these two 
species might yield. The only indigenous specimen that 
I have seen is Dieffenbach’s in Herb. Kew, and I have 
no other information as to the habit of the plant in its 
native country than an observation by Kirk, in his 
enumeration of the N. Zealand species of Veronica, in 
the “‘ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,” who 
says of it, “The rather stout branches are given off in 
a divaricating manner, so that a single specimen may 
cover an area many yards in diameter. The stem and 
leaves are sometimes pubescent.’ 
May Ist, 1899. 
