Tas. 7556. 
VERONICA Batrouriana. 
Native of New Zealand. 
Nat. Ord. ScropHULARINE#.—Tribe DiGITaLE”, 
Genus Veronica, Linn.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 964.) 
Veronica (Hebe) Balfouriana; frutex erectus, ramosus, flexuosus, fere 
glaberrimus ramulis, fusco-purpureis, foliis laxe approximatis uniformi- 
bas ad $ poll. longis subsessilibus patentibus et decurvis elliptico-ovatis 
integerrimis obtusiusculis acut. coriaceis late viridibus rubro-fusco mar- 
inatis, racemis axillaribus pedunculatis multi-densi-floris, bracteis 
pedicellos subzquantibus oblongis obtusis calycibusque puberulis, sepalis 
oblongo-lanceolatis acutis tubum corolle subequantibus, corolla 3 poll. 
diam. violaceze tubo brevi, lobis rotundatis antico minore, filamentis lobos 
corolle subsequantibus, antheris fusco-ruabris loculis basi rotundatis, cap- 
sula parva late ellipsoidea sepalis longiore. 
Under Veronica diosmefolia (Tab. 7444) I have alluded 
to having drawings of at least six species or varieties of | 
Veronicas raised from New Zealand seeds at the Royal 
Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh, which I was unable to 
identify with described congeners. ‘These and other 
drawings I sent to my friend, Mr. Thomas Kirk, F.L.S., 
Wellington, N.Z., who is engaged upon a Flora of New 
Zealand, in the hopes that he might aid me in determining 
them. This he did in the case of some, but for others, 
including that here figured, he could give me no name. 
Of it he says, ‘“‘ Apparently new, the acuminate calyx- 
segments, and the large corolla, with equal broad seg- 
- ments, are striking characters. Although showing affinity 
with V. Traversii, it can hardly be a form of that species.” 
Comparing specimens of V. Balfouriana and Traversit 
as they grew alongside one another in my garden near 
Sunningdale, I find that Balfouriana differs in habit, not 
tending to form a rounded bush, in the smaller, paler 
green leaves, with red-brown margins, the longer racemes 
with very much larger violet (not white) flowers, in the 
long acuminate sepals, which are nearly as long as the 
short corolla tube and as the capsule, and in the obtuse 
bases of the cells of the shorter broader red-brown anthers. 
I regret to add that V. Traversii is much the hardier of 
SepreMBER Isr, 1897. 
