Tab. 7338. 



VERONICA LYCOPODIOIDES. 

 Native of New Zealand. 



Nat. Ord. Schophularine^. — Tribe Digitale^. 

 Genus Veronica, Linn,; (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 964.) 



Veronica (Hebe) lycopodioides ; fruticnlns caespitosus glaber, ramnlis 

 erectis adultia tetragonis, foliis dimorphis adultis squamsaformis densis- 

 sime quadrifariam imbricatis crasae coriaceis deltoideo-ovatis concavis 

 obtuse cuspidato-acuminatis, foliis primordialibus adultis duplo longiori- 

 bus patulis in petiolum angnstatis ovatis acute 3-5-lobis, floribus in 

 capitulnm terminalem ovoideum congestis sesBilibus albis, bracteis folii- 

 formibus ciliolatis calyci 4-partito asquilongis, sepalis inaequalibns 

 oblongis obtusis tnbnm corollas a3quantibns, corollse lobo postico rotnn- 

 dato erecto, lateralibus oblongis obtusis, antico minore lineari-oblongo, 

 filamentis longe exsertis, antheris obovoideis magnis coeruleo-purpureis. 



V. lycopodioides, Hook. f. Handb. of N. Zeal. Fl. p. 211. Armatr. in Trans. 

 N. Zeal. Institute, vol. xiii. (1880), p. 357. 



V. lycopodioides is a member of a curious group of New 

 Zealand Speedwells, in which the minute leaves are densely 

 imbricated on branches which hence resemble those of 

 some species of Lycopodium and Cypress. Of these there are 

 eight known species, besides that figured here, namely, V. 

 tetragona, V. tetrasticha, V. Hectori, V. salicomioides, V. 

 cwpressoide8jV.Haa.stii, V. epacridea, and V. Armstrongii, all 

 of them mountain plants, and with the exception of the 

 first (which is found in the Northern Island) all are con- 

 fined to the Middle Island, not extending to the Chatham 

 Islands, Stewart's Island, or the Islets south of New 

 Zealand. This isolation of so abnormal a group is very 

 interesting, especially if taken into account with a singular 

 habit, which some (probably all) have, of being dimorphic 

 as regards their foliage. 



My attention was first called to this case of dimorphism 

 so long ago as 1870, by Mr. T. W. Kirk, F.L.S. (now 

 Curator of the Wellington Museum) who sent me a 

 specimen of V. cupressoides with minute, spreading, lobulate 

 leaves, and who afterwards published au account of this 



February 1st, 1894. 



