l^LATK 155.- VERONICA EPACRIDEA. 



Family SCROPHULARIACEiE.] [Genus VERONICA, Linn. 



Veronica epacridea, Ilnok. j. Handb. iV.Z. Fl. 213 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 535. 



The subject of the present plate has a very different aspect from the two species 

 previously figured. Its habit is altogether unlike, for it forms a much-branched 

 prostrate or decumbent shrub seldom more than a few inches in height. Its branch- 

 lets, instead of being very numerous, slender, erect, and clothed with minute scale- 

 like leaves, as is the case in F. tetraqona and V. cwpressoides, are comparatively few 

 in number, decumbent at the base, and then curved upwards, and densely clothed 

 with spreading and recurved rigid and coriaceous leaves. These in their size, shape, 

 and mode of arrangement recall those of some Australian species of Epacris ; which 

 no doubt is the reason for Hooker's specific name : and the flowers, instead of 

 being placed in little heads obviously lateral to the branch although near its tip, 

 are compacted into a single large ovoid cluster terminating the branch. 



Like the previous species, V. epacridea was originally discovered by Dr. Sinclair, 

 his first specimens being obtained at Tarndale, a few miles from the Wairau Gorge, 

 Nelson. It was next collected in the Waiau Valley by Mr. W. T. L. Travers, and 

 in numerous localities in the Canterbury Alps by Sir Julius von Haast. Its range, so 

 far as is known at the present time, stretches from Mount Arthur and Mount Peel, in 

 north-west Nelson, where I gathered it as far back as 1881, southwards along the 

 higher peaks of the Dun Mountain Range and the Wairau Mountains to the Spenser 

 Mountains and Lake Tennyson, and from thence along the Southern Alps to the 

 south of Lake Wanaka. It is a high alpine plant, seldom descending much below 

 4,000 ft., and frequently ascending to 6,500 ft. or even higher. 



V. evacridea is often found on shingle-slopes, on which it probably attains its 

 greatest size and luxuriance ; but it is also found on rock-faces, or even on bare 

 rocky ground. As a species it nearest relative is undoubtedly V. Haastii, some forms 

 of which approach it very closely. But as a rule it is easily separated from that plant 

 by the smaller size, sharply recurved leaves, which are much more coriaceous, and 

 by the ciliate bracts and calyx-segments. F. HaastU is also a much greener and 

 more fleshy and succulent plant. It can hardly be said that any other species even 

 remotely approaches it. 



Plate 155. Veronica epacridea, drawn from specimens collected on Mount Peel. Nelson, at an 

 altitude of 5,500 ft. Fig. 1. leaves (x 2) ; 2, flower (x4); 3, calyx and bract (x 4) : i. corolla 

 laid open (x 5) ; 6 and 6, front and l)ack view of anthers (x8): 7. ovarv and stvle (x5); 

 8, capsule (x 5) ; 9, seeds (enlarged). 



