VERONICA SALICIFOLIA, Forster. 
THE KOROMIKO. 
OrDER—SCROPHULARINE. 
(Plate CXX.) 
ARBORESCENT veronicas are to be met with only in New Zealand, with the single 
exception of Y, elliptica, which is found in New Zealand, Fuegia, the Falkland 
Islands, and South Chili: in the Northern Hemisphere the veronicas are almost 
exclusively herbs, sometimes less than rin. in height: in New Zealand they 
vary from minute herbs to trees 30ft. high, with well-developed trunks; it is, 
however, remarkable that the arborescent habit is attained only by a compara- 
tively few individuals of a species. The present species, for instance, is most 
frequent as a much-branched shrub, 3ft. to 6ft. high, but in certain localities it 
becomes a small tree 2oft. high, with a trunk ift. in diameter. The same 
remark applies to V. parviflora, which, in lowland situations, is invariably a 
shrub, rarely 6ft. high; but on the crests of hills, at an altitude of about 2,oo0it., 
it is frequently a tree 25ft. high, sometimes with a straight trunk 1ft. or more in 
diameter and a well-developed head, at others with the trunk inclined or 
prostrate from the effects of the wind: and YV. elliptica displays the same 
peculiarity. 
V. salicifolia is a variable plant, especially with regard to the breadth of the 
leaves, the length of the racemes, and the size of the flowers, In its most 
common form the branches are slender, clothed with thin dark-grey bark: the 
leaves are from 2in. to 6in. long, and about din. wide, arranged in four rows, 
perfectly smooth, narrowed at both ends, acute, and destitute of leaf-stalks. 
The flowers are white or bluish-purple, and are arranged in racemes springing 
from the axils of the leaves, from 3in. to nearly 1ft. in length; the flowers are 
close-set and carried on short pedicels: the calyx is deeply cleft into four obtuse 
or, rarely, acute lobes, and the corolla is entire, the lower part being tubular, 
and the upper divided into four unequal spreading lobes: the stamens are two 
in number, inserted at the throat of the corolla, and the ovary is two-celled, 
compressed, with a slender style. The fruit is a dry two-celled capsule, splitting 
down the middle, when each cell opens along a median line to liberate the 
minute seeds. 
The variety gracilis, selected for illustration on Plate CXX., differs from the 
type in the shorter and broader leaves, in the very slender racemes, the long 
pedicels, large flowers, and acute calyx-lobes. The flowers are as large as 
those of V. macrocarpa, and the entire plant is remarkable for its singular grace 
and beauty. It appears to be very local, and is not to be found in cultivation 
at present. 
PROPERTIES AND USEs. 
The wood of Veronica salicifolia is white, or sometimes brown at the heart, 
very straight in the grain, and remarkable for its toughness and elasticity. The 
branches give off a large amount of heat when burned. 
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