58 FLORA ANTARCTICA. [Auckland and 



and has been described and figured (in Mus. Banks) as M. riglda, Banks and Sol, MSS. Forster accurately 

 describes the flowers of his plant as solitary, most of them being truly so ; but, from its being similar in all 

 other respects to a plant brought home from New Zealand by Admiral D'Urville, except in the latter having 

 the flowers in a raceme, M. Richard altered (in his Flora Nova; Zelandire, p. 198) the character of Forster. 

 His species is probably the M. rigida, Banks and Solander, or another nearly allied plant which we possess 

 from New Zealand. 



The M. antaretica is certainly an extreme instance of any of the species having a leafy inflorescence ; 

 although the genus is generally described as having " racemus ebracteatus," there are some European and even 

 British species, which, in having the lower flowers solitary in the axils of the uppermost leaves removed from the 

 base of the raceme, show an evident analogy to the southern ones. 



Several of the species of the northern hemisphere, though nearly identical with others of the southern, are 

 not known to grow within 80 or 90 degrees of latitude of one another. This is the case both in the eastern 

 and western hemispheres. A very few are inhabitants of the elevated and cold regions of the tropics, under 

 the equator, where they attain, on the Andes of South America, an altitude of 12,000 feet. In the old world 

 the present species represents the southern limit of the genus ; especially as, from the elevation it attains in 

 Campbell's Island, it may be supposed capable of existing at the level of the sea in a much higher southern 

 latitude. 



Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 1, flower ; fig. 2, corolla laid open ; fig. 3, ovaria ; fig. 4, stamen ; fig. 5, calyx with 

 ripe fruit ; fig. G, back, and fig. 7, front view of an acheenium ; fig. 8, transverse section of an achaenium ; fig. 9, 

 embryo removed : — all magnified. 



XXII SCROPHULARINE.E, Juss. 



1. VERONICA, L. 



1. Veronica eUiptica, Forst. ; fruticosa v. arbuscula, ramulis obscure bifariam albo-puberulis, 

 foliis decussatis horizontaliter patentibus ellipticis oblongis oblongo-lanceolatis v. obovato-oblongis 

 acutis v. mucronatis rarius obtusis coriaceis glabris aveniis marginibus interdum ciliatis costa subtus 

 prominula ultra apicem producta junioribus remote crenato-serratis, racemis axillaribus brevibus 

 rarius corymboso-ramosis pauci-(4-10)-floris, calycis laciniis ovatis acutis v. acuminatis tubo corollae 

 paulo brevioribus, corolla majuscula alba v. carnea, capsulis late ovatis. — Forst. Prodr. n. 10. et in 

 A. Richard, Flor. Nov.Zel. p. 189. A. Cunn. Prodr. in Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 458. V. decussata, 

 Ait. Hort. Keiv. vol. i. p. 31. Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 242, et auctorum. V. decussata, 0, Banks and 

 Sot. MSS. 



Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; margins of woods near the sea, abundant. 



This is a very well-known plant in our gardens, introduced from the Falkland Islands, and is one of the 

 most antarctic trees, both in this longitude and in that of extreme Southern America, there reaching the 57th 

 parallel of latitude. It was first collected in New Zealand by Forster, its original discoverer, in Dusky Bav, 

 where it has since been found by Anderson and Menzies. I believe it however to have been noticed before 

 as a native of the Straits of Magalhaens, by the older navigators. 



In combining the V. decussata Ait. with V. eUiptica, I have followed the unpublished opinion of Dr. 

 Solander. In the British Museum there are drawings of the latter plant by Forster, New Zealand specimens 

 collected probably by that author, and notes by Dr. Solander. The specimens alluded to are in fruit only, and 

 agree in the foliage with the figures, which represent it in its flowering state. Dr. Forster's own handwriting 



