204 
LI1I. SCROFHULATtINEiE. 
6. LIMOSELLA, Linn. 
Small, tufted, marsh or water plants. Leaves linear or linear-spathulate. 
Peduncles axillary, 1 -flowered. Plowers minute. — Calyx campanulate, 
5-toothed. Corolla rotate; limb 5-fid; segments unequal. Stamens 4; 
anthers 1-celled, included. Stigma subclavate. Capsule subglobose, 2-valved ; 
valves entire, separating from the placenta. 
A small genus of plants found in all parts of the globe, probably all the species enume- 
rated in books are varieties of one. 
1. L. aquatica, var. tenuifolia, Linn.; — FI. N. Z. i. 190. Leaves 
in. long, obtuse. Peduncles solitary or several together. Plowers 
white, -Jj in. across or less. — L. australis, Br. ; L. tenuifolia, Nuttall. 
Throughout the islands, common in wet places. A widely distributed plant in the tem- 
perate and cold regions of both hemispheres and tropical mountains. 
7. VERONICA, Linn. 
Herbs or shrubs, rarely small trees. Leaves very various, opposite, often 
connate at the base, small and scale-like or large, sometimes minute and 
most densely imbricating quadrifariously. Plowers small, usually in axillary 
racemes, sometimes spiked corymbose or panicled, rarely solitaiy. — Sepals 4, 
rarely 5 (one being 2-fid or 2-partite). Corolla with a short or long tube, 
and expanded 4- rarely 5-lobed limb ; lobes unequal. Stamens 2, filaments 
long or short, inserted at the throat of the corolla. Ovary small, compressed, 
2-celled; style slender, stigma capitate; ovules numerous. Capsule 2-celled, 
ovoid orbicular or didymous, dorsally or laterally compressed, septicidally 
dehiscing ; valves often splitting longitudinally, falling away from the seed- 
bearing septum. Seeds numerous or few. 
A very large European, Oriental, and New Zealand genus, comparatively rare in other 
parts of the globe. In New Zealand it forms a more conspicuous feature of the vegetation 
than in any other country, both from the number, beauty, and ubiquity of the species, from 
so many forming large bushes, and from the remarkable forms the genus presents. The 
species are excessively difficult of discrimination, present numerous intermediate forms 
between many most distinct-looking ones, vary extremely in all their organs and hybridize 
most freely ; many probably are, if not bisexual, still partially so, the two sexes presenting 
differences in the size of the stamens and calyx and capsules, a point worthy of the close 
attention of the colonist. 
Between the first 19 species it is most difficult to draw any contrasting specific characters, 
they appear to present a graduated scale of forms. V. elliptica alone, I find it impossible to 
confound with any other which is the more remarkable, as it is the only New Zealand shrubby 
species that extends beyond the islands, and inhabits South Chili, etc. ; yet, except for the 
large size of the white flower and large fruit, it is difficult to point out any character of 
importance to distinguish it from forms of several others. 
Of the curious species of section 4 (viz. 20 to 25), all seem very distinct and well marked; 
though intermediates are quite conceivable, and may be found, it would be instructive to 
know if they will hybridize together and with the other sections. 
Section 5 also presents a most remarkable form of the genus, quite new, and peculiar to 
New Zealand ; the two species it includes seem distinct. 
Of the 5 species in section 6, V. macrantha and Benthami are very distinct, and the 
latter a most beautiful and remarkable plant; the three others are more closely allied, but 
I think distinct. 
