The Shrubby Veronicas 



high meadowland, scrub so dense and matted that it 

 is impenetrable unless a path is hewn through it. 

 As a rule the regions of this scrub are liable to tor- 

 rential rains and long periods of drought, and the 

 leathery, evergreen foliage of most of the Veronicas is 

 the plant's response to the demands of its environment. 



Although the world range of the shrubby Veronicas 

 is very limited, their variation certainly is not, for there 

 are between seventy and eighty different species of them 

 found growing in New Zealand. A considerable number 

 of these have been tentatively introduced into this 

 country; at Kew, and particularly at Edinburgh, there 

 are good collections of them, but the half-dozen men- 

 tioned at the head of this chapter are the only kinds 

 that are at all well known here at present. Indeed, it 

 is only during the past half century that these shrubs 

 have begun to find a place in any ordinary garden, but 

 now their popularity is growing to such an extent that 

 in certain parts of this country in the neighbourhood 

 of London, for instance the Veronica, as a shrub, is 

 bidding fair to become as familiar as the common 

 Laurel. 



The particular species that is far and away prime 

 favourite is Travers's Veronica, V. Traversa ; indeed, in 

 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, this is the one 

 seen. And it is unmistakable at the first glance, so 

 characteristically prim is its foliage. All down the 



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