VERONICA SPECIOSA. 
(Showy Speedwell.) 
Class. 
DI AN Dili A. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
SCHOPHULARIACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx four, rarely five-parted, 
eampanulate or compressed. Corolla rotate, with a 
very short tube, and a four-parted spreading limb ; 
segments all entire ; upper one the broadest. Stamens 
two, situated at the sides of the upper segment of the 
corolla, diverging, without any vestige of the lower 
ones. Anthers two-celled ; cells confluent at top. 
Stigma hardly thickened. Valves of capsule septifer- 
ous in the middle, or bipartible. Seeds naked — Don's 
Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character — Plant an evergreen shrub, 
growing about eighteen inches in height. Leaves op- 
posite, sessile, nearly obovate, emarginate, a little un- 
dulated and irregular on the surface. Spikes of flowers 
axillary, on short stout peduncles, very dense. Corollas 
deep blue, fading almost to white. 
With much of the aspect of Lisianthus Russellianus, this fine Speedwell 
constitutes a robust-growing shrub, decidedly evergreen, with an abundance of 
neat leaves, and an extraordinary number as well as succession of densely-clothed 
flower-spikes, which are about three inches in length, and bear deep blue blossoms, 
that fade away to white before they fall. 
Mr. Knight, nurseryman, of the King's Road, Chelsea, received this beautiful 
species from Mr. Egerly, who brought it over from New Zealand in 1841. It 
flowered at the Exotic Nursery in August last, at which time we saw the plant 
developing numberless young spikes for blooming ; one appearing at the axil of 
nearly every leaf. From that time to the present, it has remained finely in 
blossom, and promises to maintain this state throughout the greater part of the 
winter. 
It is a particularly clean, healthy, and compact object, not rising, apparently, 
above a foot or a foot and a half in height, and having a profusion of bright green 
and shining foliage. When blooming, its character becomes still more interesting, 
on account of the great quantity of its flowers, which so thickly stud the stalks, 
and give a pretty variety, from being first blue, then white, as before mentioned. 
Mr. Knight's flowering plant has been kept in a very cool part of the stove 
since it was first established ; and any kind of pruning, for whatever purpose, has 
been carefully avoided. It is potted in a light open compost, full of fibre, and a 
