L. Cockayne. — Notes on New Zealand Floristic Botany _ 201 



tube is funnel- or sometimes barrel-sliaped, 3-5 mm. long, and, slightly 

 pubescent at entrance to throat ; the lobes are not wide-spreading, concave, 

 especially the posterior one, which with the lateral are broadly ovate or 

 obovate, 2-5 mm. long, and rounded at the apex, while the anterior lobe is 

 much shorter and narrower. 



The above plant has puzzled me greatly for a number of years. 

 Probably the decumbent form of coastal cliffs is the plant collected by 

 Colenso at Cook Strait and referred by Hooker to Y . macroura Hook. f. 

 This position I took up in 1907 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 39, p. 361), but 

 considered that it should be separated as a variety. Later on it became 

 obvious that there were no constant differences between the tall shrub, 

 so common in and near Wellington City, and the coastal plant. But both 

 were so different from any form of F. salicifoUa with which I was ac- 

 quainted, and also from V. macroura proper, that they seemed specifically 

 distinct from either, and so I gave the Wellington plant the MS. name 

 of V. Atkinsonii, after my friend Mr. Esmond Atkinson; of the Biological 

 Branch of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture. Later, visiting 

 .the Marlborough Sounds, to my surprise there appeared to be no forms in 

 that area of F. salicifoUa, but F. Atkinsonii was abundant. The question 

 at once arose, could this latter be the " type " of F. salicifoUa, since it can 

 hardly have escaped the notice of the botanists of Cook's second voyage, 

 and from their material F. salicifoUa was described. But F. salicifoUa, 

 in one of its well-known forms, would also be collected by the same expedi- 

 tion at Dusky Sound. It seems possible, then, that F. salicifoUa Forst. f. 

 is a mixture of F. Atkinsonii, V . salicifoUa var. Dusky Sound, and per- 

 haps F. amabiUs Cheesem. var. blanda of the same locality. Most probably, 

 however, judging from the original description, which is as follows, the 

 Dusky Sound F. salicifoUa is the type : " F. salicifoUa, racemis lateralibus 

 nutantibus, "caule fi'uticosa, foliis longo-lanceolatis integerrimis." Nutans 

 and longo-lanceolatus match the Dusky Sound plant, but not that of the 

 Marlborough Sounds. On the contrary, infegerri)ni(s is not correct, for the 

 leaves of both plants are usually slightly toothed. 



Although the Wellington plant is nearly always much as described 

 above, specimens are encountered with longer narrower leaves, with longer 

 more tapering racemes, and with flowers suffused wuth lilac and less closely 

 placed. Such specimens come much too close to the variety of F. salicifoUa 

 next described to allow F. Atkinsonii to stand as a species, so it is here 

 dealt with as a well-marked variety of the complicated aggregate F. salicifoUa. 



V. salicifoUa var. Atkinsonii is essentially a rock-plant. This rupestral 

 habit is clearly shown by the rapidity with which rock-cuttings in Wel- 

 • lington City are seized upon by the plant. Such physiological behaviour 

 is a most impoi-tant character of the race, marking it clearly from var. 

 paludosa and var. communis, although the latter is also rupestral, but to a 

 much lesser degree. 



(6.) Veronica salicifolia Forst. f. var. communis Cockayne var. nov. 



Folia viridia, lanceolata, apicem versus attenuata acuta vel acuminata, 

 subsessilia, membranacea, + 7-5-9-5 cm. longi. Eacemi graciles, at- 

 tenuati, +12 cm. longi, pedunculis ± 3-5 cm. longis ; flores albi-lilacino 

 tincti ; pedicelli 3 mm. longi ; calycis-lobi lanceolati, acuti ; corollae-lobi 

 ovati, subacuti. 



This is the ordinary form of F. salicifolia throughout the South Island, 

 "where it occurs as a tall or medium-sized much-branched shrub from sea- 



