its Cultivation and Treatment. 253 



leaves, slightly curved inwards at the edges. The blos- 

 soms appear in very dense spikes, three inches long, and are 

 thrown out at the axil of nearly every leaf; they are of the 



Fig. 13, Veronica ^peeiosa. 



richest and deepest purple, and eight or ten days after expan- 

 sion fade away nearly to white, in which state they remain 

 some time, and contrast prettily with the freshly opened blos- 

 soms. 



The Veronica speciosa was introduced into England in 

 1841. It is a native of New Zealand, and was first received 

 by Mr. Knight, of the King's road, Chelsea, who first flow- 

 ered it in August, 1843. We saw it in bloom, for the first 

 time, in Mr. Groom's collection, in October, 1844, during our 

 visit to England, and were struck with the appearance of the 

 plant, whose beauty we had previously noticed (X. p. 64) and 

 which we again alluded to in our notes on new plants (p. 412.) 

 We selected two plants from Mr. Groom, which we brought 



