640 



VERONICA 



speciosa, is an exception. It is one of the hardiest and best, producing 

 its bright blue flowers from August to November. It is a neat bush with 

 oval or obovate leaves j to i^ ins. long, and erect racemes (sometimes 

 branched) i^ to 3 ins. long. 



V. TRAVERSII, Hooker fil. TRAVERS' SPEEDWELL. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 6390.) 



An evergreen shrub up to 6 ft. high, or more, forming a wide-spreading, 

 rounded bush of dense habit; branches erect, at first minutely downy, soon 

 becoming quite smooth. Leaves densely arranged on the shoot (ten or 



twelve to the inch), superposed in 

 four vertical rows; narrowly oval or 

 oblong, sometimes slightly obovate; 

 to i in. long, \ to J in. wide ; 

 pointed, tapered at the base to a 

 short, broad stalk ; dark, rather 

 dull green. Racemes produced in 

 July from the leaf-axils near the 

 end of the shoot, usually about 2 

 ins. long, f in. wide, the main-stalk 

 minutely downy. Flowers ^ to \ in. 

 in diameter, white ; sepals ovate 

 with minute hairs at the edges, 

 corolla-tube about twice as long. 

 Anthers purple-brown. Seed-.vessel 

 \ in. long, much compressed, about 

 twice as long as the sepals. 



Native of New Zealand; intro- 

 duced about 1868. This has proved 

 the most hardy, and on the whole 

 the most ornamental of NewZealand 

 veronicas in gardens. The only time 

 I have seen it killed by cold was 

 in February 1895. It makes a hand- 

 some and shapely evergreen, worth 

 growing on that account alone, but 

 it has the additional attraction of 

 flowering freely and regularly after 

 midsummer, when shrubs in flower 

 cease to be abundant. It is pleasing 

 as an isolated specimen on a lawn. 

 The above description applies to 

 the shrub long grown in gardens as 

 V. Traversii, but it seems doubtful 



if it be the true plant originally described by Hooker. His types in the Kew 

 Herbarium have more slender branches, leaves more narrowly oblong, f to I J 

 ins. long, \ to J in. wide, less densely packed on the stem. Calyx-lobes much 

 shorter, more rounded, and only about one-fourth the length of the capsule. 



VERONICA VEBNICOSA. 



V. VERNICOSA, Hooker fil. 



(V. canterburiensis, Armstrong.') 



A low, spreading shrub, I to 2 ft. high; shoots furnished with extremely 

 minute down. Leaves densely packed on the stem, J to | in. long, to 



