Sir F. von Mueller, in his little volume on the “ Vegeta- 
tion of the Chatham Islds.,”’ has the hardihood to refer this 
and twenty other well characterized New Zealand species 
of Veronica to V. salicifolia! Under the same inspiration, 
in the same work, he reduces thirty-five species of Hpilo- 
bium, including EH. alpinum, L., to H. tetragonum, L. It 
is unfortunate that Mueller never visited either New ~ 
Zealand or the Chatham Islds., for a little knowledge of 
the species of both genera in their native countries might 
have modified his views. 
The figure of V. Dieffenbachii was made from a specimen 
sent me by Robert Lindsay, Esq., of Kaimes Lodge, 
Murray-field, Midlothian, in August, 1898, The plant 1s 
cultivated at Kew, where it flowers freely in a sheltered 
border in October. 
Deser.—A glabrous or puberulous shrub, with long, 
divaricating, terete, green, leafy branches. Leaves sessile, 
spreading, and recurved, three to four inches long, linear- ~~ 
oblong, acute, coriaceous, midrib stout otherwise, veinless, 
base broadly cordate, semi-amplexicaul, margins recurved, 
bright green above, pale beneath. Flowers very small, 
bright lilac, crowded in axillary, opposite, shortly pedun- 
cled, sub-erect, cylindric dense racemes; peduncle and 
rhachis stout, terete; pedicels about one-tenth of an inch 
long, with a minute bract at the base. Sepals about as 
long as the pedicels, narrowly oblong, acute, ciliolate. 
Corolla tube longer than the sepals, funnel-shaped, limb a 
quarter of an inch broad, lateral and dorsal lobes sub- 
equal, orbicular, anterior lobe smaller. Filaments about as 
long as the corolla-lobes, anthers blue. Capsule very small, 
ovate, obtuse, or acute, dorsally compressed. Seeds 
minute, orbicular.—/. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Two flowers, with pedicels and bracts; 2, two sepals, ovary, and 
base of style; 3, portion of raceme and capsule; 4, calyx and capsule ; 
5, seed; all but 3 (which is of the natural size) enlarged. 
