VERONICA. 



this lovely little New Zealander — which now never lets you again 

 forget its presence till autumn has long been dark on the garden — turns 

 out not only an easy and a hardy plant, but has the happiest way of 

 seeding itself about in the most unexpected places here and there, where 

 you would never yourself have dreamed of putting it, nor of hoping 

 to see it thrive in a carpet. It lives at home in the dried margins of 

 lakes and pools in both the Islands, and up to 3000 feet in the 

 mountains ; its perfect adaptability to our country is such a pleasant 

 miracle that pieces of the mat should always be secured and potted 

 up in autumn, lest trust in the miracle should betray you, as trust in 

 miracles invariably does, if carried too far. 



V. carnea is a form of V. spicata with pink flowers. 



V. caucasica ( V. ossetica) has stems of 5 or 6 inches or more, rather 

 crisped and glandular. The leaves are oval, but feathered to the 

 base in gashed lobes. The flowers are pearly-white with a striping of 

 lilac, borne in a very loose and widespread showery spray throughout 

 the later summer. Several doubtful names of catalogues may belong to 

 this species. 



V. GJuimaedrys. — You would not need to search catalogues far 

 before you came on many an uglier thing than the common Speedwell. 



V. chathamica belongs to the group of New Zealand shrubs, but 

 comes here because its habit of ramping forward flat upon its belly is 

 so picturesque ; till the ground, or the cliff- wall, becomes a dense sheet 

 of its rock-hugging shoots, set closely with oval-pointed foliage of a 

 beautiful light glaucous-green, and emitting little spikes of blue 

 flowers in the latest days of summer. It is quite hardy in any reason- 

 ably sheltered place, and will strike with the utmost readiness from 

 cuttings. 



V. cinerea makes lax trailing cushions and masses and rooting 

 carpets of short shoots, all of ashy-grey velvet, with the narrow-oblong 

 toothed leaves rolled together along their edges, and the ascending 

 branchlets about 3 or 4 inches long, sending out from their upper axils 

 rather loose spires of pink blossom throughout the later months of 

 the summer. Tho flowers, to judge by the statements of some lists, 

 appear sometimes to vary to blue. It stands near V. caucasica and 

 V. orientalis, but differs, among other points, in the fact that the shoots 

 root as they go. 



V. circaeoeides is a name for a species in this group, with a pleasant 

 habit of weakly 8-inch stems, set with veiny toothed rhomboidal loaves, 

 often of russet and bronzy tone, and specially loose sprays in the later 

 summer of pearly-white flowers veined with pink, that give a faint 

 suggestion of an enlarged Enchanter's Night-shade, to justify the 



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