VERONICA. 
225 
THE GENUS VERONICA. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION OE V. SPECIOSA ROSEA. 
In the extensive genus under notice we are presented with an 
assemblage of near one hundred and fifty species and varieties, 
scarcely one of which large number but possesses sufficient beauty 
to make it welcome in some part of the garden. The majority 
are of European origin, and are consequently hardy; indeed, a 
considerable proportion are indigenous to our own island, claim¬ 
ing to rank with the most beautiful of our native flowers. From 
among the hardy class referred to, it would not be difficult to 
select at least fifty thoroughly distinct and highly ornamental 
objects, which, was justice done them, would be universally in¬ 
troduced to all cultivated grounds ; but, by a strange fatality, 
which extends to a great number of really beautiful things, they 
are neglected without the slightest apparent reason. Blue is the 
prevailing colour of the genus, produced for the most part in the 
middle of summer, a circumstance which ought of itself to ensure 
their adoption, for cold tints are then most desirable, and with 
difficulty obtained; but though the several shades of this colour 
may be said to obtain in the genus, it is by no means confined to 
that alone, for white, pink, red, lilac, and violet are also found 
in it; and in addition, there is variety sufficient to please the 
most fastidious, in foliage, height, habit, and general appearance, 
so much so, that Veronicas seem created, as it were, to supply 
the ornamental gardener with the most ample means of attaining 
a thorough finish in his design. 
In addition to the hardy kinds, there are about a dozen which 
are usually considered and treated as greenhouse plants, though 
it appears quite probable, nearly or quite all of them will be 
found, on trial, sufficiently robust to bear the average of our 
winters. The old V. dianthifolia, from New Holland, and the 
V. perfoliata , from New South Wales, will bear a considerable 
amount of frost, and we have heard of several cases in which the 
comparatively new V. speciosa has been allowed to stand in the 
open border through the last winter; it was one, truly, that could 
scarcely be called of average severity, but we have hopes of seeing 
i. 19 
