Veronica. | SCROPHULARINE. 513 
Dusky Bay, Menzies. Sea-level to 3000 ft. December-February. Vat. 
divaricata: Not uncommon in the Pelorus and Rai Valleys, Marlborough, 
Macmahon ! 
V. Menziesii was founded by Bentham on specimens collected by Menzies in 
Dusky Bay in 1791. In the Flora Hooker united Menzies’s plant with 
another gathered by Bidwill in the vicinity of Nelson; but in the Handbook he 
referred Menzies’s specimens to V. elliptica, and associated Bidwill’s specimens 
with a plant gathered on the Ruahine Mountains by Colenso, and with others 
collected in various localities in the South Island by Sinclair, Travers, and 
Haast, giving the name of Colensoi to the species thus described But as 
Colenso’s plant was described as having simple racemes and glaucous leaves, 
while Bidwill’s (judging from a specimen in my possession) had compound 
racemes and dark-green leaves, this arrangement did not appear at all satisfac- 
tory. At my request Mr. N. E. Brown has carefully examined the types in the 
Kew Herbarium, aid reports that Menzies’s and Bidwill’s specimens undoubtedly 
belong to one and the same species, and that Hooker was in error in referring the 
former to V. elliptica. He further states that Colenso’s Ruahine Mountain plant 
is totally different, and is the species subsequently described by Colenso under 
the name of V. Hillu. Under these circumstances, the name of V. Menziesit 
must be restored, the species being characterized by the narrow acute rigid 
leaves, corymbosely branched racemes, 4-partite calyx with subacute segments, 
and a corolla-tube almost twice as long as the calyx. Its nearest ally is V. diosme- 
folia, to which my var. divaricata is very close indeed. A plant collected by 
Petrie at the foot of Ruapehu, and by Messrs. Hill and Andrew on the Ruahine 
Range, is doubtfully referred to V. Menziesii for the present, but the specimens 
are not sufficient for precise determination. 
23. V. Colensoi, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 209, as regards the 
North Island specimens only.—A small erect or spreading perfectly 
glabrous shrub 9-18 in. high; branches leafy above, ringed with 
the scars of the fallen leaves below. Leaves rather close-set, sub- 
erect or spreading, sessile or narrowed into a very short broad 
petiole, $-14 in. long, 4-4 in. broad, linear-oblong or oblong-lanceo- 
late, acute or subacute, entire or remotely incised, coriaceous, flat 
or nearly so, dark-green above, glaucous beneath; midrib stout, 
prominent beneath. Racemes few near the tips of the branches, 
slightly exceeding the leaves, slender, peduncled, simple or spar- 
ingly branched, many-flowered; rhachis slender, puberulous or 
glabrate ; bracts exceeding the short pedicels. Flowers white, + in. 
diam. Calyx deeply 4-partite; segments ovate-lanceolate, acute. 
Corolla-tube broadly funnel-shaped, shorter than the calyx; limb 
rather longer than the tube, 4-lobed; lobes spreading or reflexed, 
narrow-ovate, subacute. Stamens short, not exceeding the corolla- 
lobes. Capsule narrow-ovate, acute, compressed, about twice as 
long as the calyx.—V. Hillii, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1896) 
606; Kirk, l.c. 524. 
North Istanp: Hawke’s Bay—By the Ngaruroro River at Kuripapango ; 
between the Rangitikei ford and Erewhon, H. Hill! A. Hamilton! D. Petrie! 
Ruahine Mountains, Colenso. SoutH IsLaANnD: Otago, locality not stated, 
Buchanan ! 
17—FI. 
