Platk 154. -YEROXICA CUPRESS()IDP]S. 



Family SCROPHULARIACE^.l [Genus VERONICA, Linn. 



Veronica cupressoides, Hook. /. Haridh. N.Z. Fl. 212; Gheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 533. 



Veronica cupressoides is another member of the group of whipcord Veronicas 

 alluded to under the previous plate, and probably the most remarkable. It was 

 first discovered by Dr. Sinclair in 1859 or 1860 at the Wairau Gorge, Nelson; and 

 at Tarndale, between the Wairau Valley and the Clarence. Many years afterwards 

 I gathered the species in probably the" actual localities in which it was found by 

 Sinclair. It was next collected by Mr. VV. T. L. Travers in the Wairau Valley, and 

 by Sir Julius v(m Haast in the Ashburton district, Canterbury; while in 1863 it 

 was found by Sir James Hector and Mr. Buchanan in the Lake district of Otago. 

 Its range, so far as is known at the present time, is from the Wairau Gorge 

 southwards to Lake Te Anau. Apparently it is unknown on the western side of 

 the Southern Alps, although in some localities, such as Lake Tennyscm, Harper's 

 Pass, &c.. it comes very near to the actual watershed. Thirty or forty vears 

 ago it was much more plentiful than now, for, being generally an inhabitant of 

 river valleys or terraces, it has suffered greatly from the almost universal practice 

 of burning off the vegetation in such localities. Its altitudinal range I take to be 

 from 2,000 ft. to 4,.500 ft. 



V. cupressoides, in the localities in which I myself have seen it, forms a closely 

 branched round -topped shrub 2 ft. to 6 ft. or even 8 ft. high. The branches spread 

 considerably ; the branchlets are very numerous, slender, green, clothed with small 

 decussate scale-like leaves resembling those of a cypress. Unlike all the other whip- 

 cord Veronicas, the leaves are in remote pairs, separated from one another by <(uite 

 a considerable interval. The flowers are pale bluish-purple or nearly white, and 

 are sessile close to the tips of the branchlets. forming small heads. The capsule is 

 small, narrow-obovoid. 



The whipcord Veronicas are remarkable for the extent to which thev resemble 

 plants of very different families. V. cupressoides possibly offers as striking an 

 instance as any, for the manner in which the branchlets mimit^ as it were, those 

 of a cypress never fails to impress the most casual observer. We have already 

 seen that V. tetragona, when first discovered, was actually figured in mistake for 

 a Podocarpus. V. lycopodioides has much of the aspect of several Li/copods with 

 appressed scale-like leaves. Finally, V. salicornioides was named on account of 

 the likeness of its branchlets to those of a species of Salicornia. 



V. cupressoides does well in cultivation, especially in the middle and southern 

 portion of the Dominion, where it succeeds in almost any open loamy soil if provided 

 with a little shade. In a cool and damp situation it frequently produces reversion 

 shoots with juvenile leaves. 



Plate 154. Veronicit cuprensoides. diawii fnun specimens collected by the Broken River. Canter- 

 bury Alps, at an altitude of 3,000 ft. A, seedling ; B, reversion shoot with juvenile leaves, taken from 

 the base of an old plant ; C. branch from a mature plant. Fig. 1 . branchlet, with leaves 

 from A (X 3) : 2. branchlet, with leaves from mature plant (x 6) ; 3, tip of branch, with two flowers 

 (x 6) ; 4. bract (x (i) ; 5. calyx (x 6) ; 6, the same laid open, showing the ovary and style (x 6) ; 

 7, corolla laid open (x 8) ; 8 and 9, front and back view of anther (x 10) ; 10, ripe capsule (x 5) • 

 11, embryo (enlarged). 



