VERONICA 639 



V. SALICIFOLIA, Forster. 



A shrub up to 10 ft. high in a wild state, branchlets round, smooth, or 

 very minutely downy when young. Leaves narrowly lanceolate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, 2 to 5 ins. long, \ to \ in. wide; tapering to a long slender point, 

 more abruptly tapered at the base; stalkless or nearly so; pale green and 

 smooth; midrib slightly downy above, prominent beneath. Racemes 

 slenderly cylindrical, 4 to 6, sometimes 10 ins. long, f in. wide; very thickly 

 crowded with blossom except at the base, which is naked for i or 2 ins. 

 Flowers small, \ in. long, variable in colour, being white tinged with lilac, 

 bluish purple or of intermediate shades; corolla-lobes narrow, not spreading; 

 the tube nearly twice as long as the narrow pointed sepals. The main-stalk 

 of the racemes, the dower-stalks (slender and \ in. long), and the margins 

 of the sepals minutely downy. 



Native of New Zealand, where according to Cheeseman, it is the most 

 widely spread and the most variable of all the veronicas. It is one of the 

 tender sorts, only adapted for the mildest parts of Britain. It has hybridised 

 very freely with other species, and some of the fine garden varieties are 

 descended in part from it. V. ANDERSONI, Lindley, a variegated form of 

 which was once very popular for summer bedding, is a hybrid between this 

 species and V. speciosa. 



Nearly allied to the above is 



V. GIGANTEA, Cockayne (V. salicifolia var. gigantea, Cheesemaii}. A tree 

 rivalling V. parviflora (see p. 632) in stature and bulk, being occasionally 25 ft. 

 high, and forming a well-defined trunk. It has leaves 2 to 4 ins. long, \ to 

 | in. wide, with minutely hairy margins. Flowers white, \ in. wide, produced 

 in racemes about as long as the leaves. Besides the greater stature and 

 shorter racemes, this veronica differs from V. salicifolia in having the calyx 

 and the corolla-tube of about the same length. There is a picture of a tree 

 growing on Chatham Island in the Kew Bulletin for 1910, p. 123, taken by 

 Capt. Dorrien Smith in December 1909. The plant was introduced tc 

 cultivation by him at the same time. 



V. SPECIOSA, R. Cunningham. 

 (Bot. Mag., t. 4057.) 



A shrub up to 5 ft. high; branches spreading, very stout even when 

 young, smooth, two-edged at first. Leaves 2 to 4 ins. long, f to if ins. 

 wide; obovate, rounded or bluntish at the apex, tapered at the base to a 

 very short stalk; dark shining green, leathery, smooth except that the 

 midrib above and the margins near the base are minutely downy. Racemes 

 produced in the uppermost leaf-axils, i^ to 3 ins. long, I to iijr ins. thick. 

 Flowers dark reddish purple, ^ in. diameter. 



Native of the North Island of New Zealand,'where it was discovered in 

 December 1833, by Richard Cunningham, at the south head of Hokianga 

 Harbour. It occurs also in the South Island, but is very rare and confined 

 to small areas, always on cliffs near the sea. I am not sure that the typical 

 plant is now in cultivation, but it is very striking in the great width of its 

 round-ended or broadly tapered leaves. It has, however, by hybridisation 

 with other species given birth to a very valuable series of evergreen 

 flowering shrubs, in which its influence is seen in the purple, violet, or 

 reddish flowers, and in the compressed two-angled shoots. Unfortunately 

 they inherit, too, more or less of its tenderness, so that in all but the 

 warmest counties of the British Isles they need winter protection. A variety 

 called "Autumn Glory,'"' possessing, however, little of the "blood" of V. 



