T. Kmx.— Descriptions of New Plants. 465 
All the Otago specimens of Veronica hectori that I have seen are more 
robust than those from the Canterbury and Nelson mountains; the length 
of the capsule varies considerably. 
Notwithstanding the doubts I entertain of the claims of our plant to 
specific honours, I have great pleasure in describing it under the name by 
which it has become known to hortieulturists. As it adapts itself to 
artificial conditions more readily than any other species belonging to the 
section (except perhaps V. cupressoides), and is easily recognized by its 
flabellate branches, it will probably retain its name even if it should ulti- 
mately be considered a form of V. salicornioides ; but it would have afforded 
me greater pleasure to have attached the name of its discoverer to some 
form more likely to prove of permanent specific value. 
The dimorphism in the foliage of all the species characterized by 
appressed leaves has not received the attention it merits, The spreading 
leaves are easily produced under cultivation ; if the plants are kept in a 
cool, shaded situation, they will be developed from the tips of branches 
bearing appressed leaves as well as from all newly formed branches. In 
V. cupressoides the free leaves are ovate, lobulate or nearly pinnatifid. There 
can be little doubt that the free leaves are equally characteristie of the 
seedling state of the plant, although I have been unable to find them in a 
wild condition. 
Many of the New Zealand species of Veronica comprise a series of forms 
capable of being recognized by the eye, especially when their minute 
differences are exaggerated under the luxuriant growth induced by cultiva- 
tion, but they pass into ’each other by insensible gradations, and are not 
capable of rigid definition. In this respect they resemble Rosa canina, 
Rubus fruticosus, and Salix repens of Northern Europe; and the trivial 
varieties and sub-varieties of our Veronicas are no more worthy of being 
elevated to specific rank than the varieties and sub-varieties of these 
variable European plants. 
PLANTAGINEE. 
Plantago hamiltoni. 
Stem very short. Leaves rosulate, }'-1}" long, more or less clothed with 
scattered jointed hairs, linear lanceolate, toothed or nearly entire, narrowed 
into a broad petiole, with shaggy hairs at the base. Scapes 1-flowered, 
crowded amongst the leaves, at first very short 44'—,, long (always ?) 
elongating as the fruit matures; sepals short, broad, obtuse; corolla tube 
narrow, lobes acute, spreading, ovary large, ovate. Capsule (always ?) 
when ripe on an elongated scape 3'-1' long, very large, fully $’~'5’ broad, 
ovate, apiculate, glabrous, imperfectly 4-celled, cells 2-seeded. 
A29 
