J48 
ANTARCTIC VERONICAS. 
when it was tested along with the Riga pine, 
the result was as follows : — "Both pines were 
l|r inch square, 3 feet long, and suspended 
10 inches from the end. The D. australis 
bore a weight of 1 cwt. 2 qr. and 151bs. before 
it broke, and the Riga pine only 1 cwt. 2 qrs. 
and lib. ; but the former weighed lib. and 
13 oz., while the latter weighed only lib. and 
8 oz. This tree, like the other, yields a 
glassy transparent resin, which hardens by 
exposure to the air, and which is found to 
answer admirably as varnish. The seeds 
should be sown in pans of loam in a stove, 
and gradually shifted to a colder situation. 
If the cones were gathered from such of the 
trees as stand on the tops of the mountains, 
there is little doubt that the young plants 
might be grown in a greenhouse, and finally 
inured to warm situations in the open air. 
All experience with half-hardy plants goes 
to confirm this theory. Plants 18 inches 
high are 15s. each (1846), 
The foregoing paper completes the series 
relating to the true cone-bearing plants (po- 
pularly so considered) comprising the tribe 
Abietinas. The other tribe of coniferous 
plants — Cupressinae, whose fruit has been dis- 
tinguished by the term galbulus, will be treated 
on in the succeeding volume ; it will include 
the arbor- vitae, the cypress, the juniper, and 
one or two smaller genera. 
The genera forming the tribe Abietinas 
just completed, all of which are included in 
the present volume, are : — Pinus (pp. 77, 
125, and 159) ; Abies (p. 258) ; Picea (p. 339); 
Larix (p. 343) ; Cedrus (p. 449) ; Araucaria 
(p. 543) ; Cunninghamia(p. 546) ; and Dam- 
mara (p. 547). 
The order Taxaceas, one of the near allies 
of Coniferae, is treated on at p. 20 of the 
present volume ; this order includes the genera 
Taxus, Torreya, Salisburia, Podocarpus, Da- 
crydium, and Phyllocladus. 
Veronica Benthami. 
ANTARCTIC 
Several interesting sub-shrubby species 
of Veronica are known, though not yet intro- 
duced to our gardens. Of two of these, most 
beautiful figures are given in Dr. Hooker's 
Flora Antarctica. The species now specially 
referred to are V. Benthanii(Bentham's Speed- 
well) and V. odora (sweet-scented Speedwell). 
Veronica Benthami is an erect branching 
shrub, growing from two to four feet high. 
The branches are spreading, and clothed with 
decussate (cross-wise) sessile leaves, varying 
in figure from oblong to oblong-obovate and 
linear-oblong. The flowers grow in erect, 
VERONICAS. 
| leafy, terminal racemes, and are of an intense 
azure colour, with violet-coloured veins. It 
is not only a beautiful, but a very remarkable 
plant, and one of the greatest ornaments of the 
barren hills it inhabits. The flowers are 
nearly as large as those of V. elliptica ( V. de- 
cussata), that is, about five or six lines in 
diameter. They are of a beautiful blue colour. 
This plant was found abundantly on rocky 
places on the hills both in Lord Auckland's 
and in Campbell's Islands. Haubron and 
Jacquinot, in a French work called Voyage 
au Pole 8ud, names the plant Veronicajinaus- 
