490 SCROPHULARINEZ.. [ Limosella. 
calyx, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla-tube. 
Style short; stigma capitate. Capsule included within the per- 
sistent calyx, 4-4 in. diam., globose, rupturing irregularly. Seeds. 
very numerous ; testa reticulated. 
SourH Istanp: Otago—Watery places in the Manuherikia Valley, Petrie. 
Also in Australia. 
A very curious plant, differing from all states of L. aquatica in the sessile 
flowers, included corolla, and capsule shorter than the calyx. I have seen no 
specimens except Mr. Petrie’s, the flowers of which appear to be cleistogamic. 
7. VERONICA, Linn. 
Herbs or shrubs, rarely small trees. Leaves opposite or rarely 
the cauline alternate, often connate at the base, large or small and 
scale-like, spreading or appressed, often closely quadrifariously 
imbricate. Flowers in bracteate axillary or terminal racemes, more 
rarely in spikes or panicles or corymbs, sometimes solitary in the 
axils of the leaves or terminal. Calyx usually 4-partite, rarely 3- or 
5-partite. Corolla-tube longer or shorter than the calyx, sometimes. 
very short; limb spreading, usually 4-lobed, sometimes 5-lobed, 
seldom 3- or 6-lobed; lobes unequal or rarely equal, imbricate in 
the bud, the lateral ones or one of them outside. Stamens 2, 
very rarely 4 or 5; filaments long or short, inserted on the corolla- 
tube; anther-cells diverging or parallel, confluent at the tip. 
Ovary small, 2-celled; style slender; ovules few or many in each 
cell. Capsule 2-celled, compressed or turgid, grooved on each side, 
either septicidally dehiscent with the placentas separating, or 
loculicidal with the valves remaining attached to the undivided 
placental column or separating from it. Seeds few or many, ovate 
or orbicular, compressed, attached by the inner flat surface. 
A genus of nearly 200 species, most abundant in New Zealand and in the 
temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, rare and almost absent in the 
tropics. In New Zealand it is by far the largest genus of flowering-plants, and 
in montane or subalpine districts forms a conspicuous portion of the vegetation. 
Many of the species are singularly beautiful in form, foliage, and flower; and 
from that reason, and from the ease with which they can be cultivated, a con- 
siderable number have become well established in gardens throughout the 
colony andin Europe. Of the 84 species admitted in this book, all but three are 
endemic. These are V. elliptica, which is found in the Falkland Islands, 
Fuegia, and South Chili; V. plebeia, which is not uncommon in east Australia; 
and V. Anagallis, which has a wide distribution in the north temperate zone. 
But the last is probably an introduction. The distribution of the species within 
the colony is peculiar. Fourteen are confined to the North Island, and no less 
than 55 to the South Island, while only 11 species are found in both Islands. 
Three are endemic in the Chatham Islands, and one in the Auckland and Camp-- 
bell Islands. Of the 84 species, 49 are purely montane or alpine, not one of 
them descending below 1000 ft. altitude; 13 are both lowland and montane; 
12 are purely lowland, but do not evince any special predilection for the sea- 
coast; while 10 are never seen far from the sea. 
