Veronica. | SCROPHULARIACEAE. T89 
SoutH [sntanp: Nelson—Coast near Brighton, to the south of Westport, W. 
Townson | 
Although unwilling to create new species in a genus like Veronica, I feel compelled 
to assign specific rank to this, which appears to be well characterized by the small 
oblong or elliptic-oblong flat spreading leaves, dense racemes, very short and broad 
corolla-tube, and broadly oblong subacute capsule. It is difficult to trace its relation- 
ships, but I think its nearest allies will be found in the vicinity of V. macroura on one 
side, and V. figustrifolia on the other. 
4 
tt. V. ligustrifolia 4. Cunn) in Bot. Mag. (1836) sub. t. 3461, — A small 
laxly branched glabrous shrub 1-3ft. high, rarely more; bark greyish- 
brown ; branchlets slender, twiggy, terete. Leaves spreading, sessile or 
nearly so, 1-2in. long, rarely more, +-3in. broad, oblong or linear-oblong 
to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute or more rarely acute, flat, quite 
entire. Racemes near the tips of the branches, 2-3in. long, slender, 
rather tax-flowered ; rhachis, pedicels, and bracts puberulous or almost 
glabrate. Hlowers rather small, white, }+in. diam. Calyx deeply 4- 
partite ; segments ovate-lanceclate, acute, glabrous or the margins minutely 
cillolate. Corolla-tube funnel-shaped, shorter than the calyx; limb longer 
than the tube, spreading, 4-lobed ; lobes acute. Capsule din. long, ovate, 
acute, compressed, hardly twice as long as the calyx.—A. Cunn. Precur. 
(1838) n. 375; Benth. m DC. Prodr. x (1846) 460; Raoul Choix (1846) 
43; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 192; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 208 (in 
part only); Cheesem. Man. N.Z, Fl. (1906) 208. 
Nort Istanp: North Cape district, Adams and 7. F. O.; Bay of Islands, 
A. Cunningham, Colenso/ and others; Whangarei Heads, 7. F. C. 
The plant herein described is the original V. ligustrifolia of A. Cunningham, and 
of Bentham in De Candolle’s Prodromus. It by no means corresponds with the 
ligustrifolia of Hooker, who included in the term Bentham’s V. acutiflora and my 
leiophylla, and possibly other plants. As a species it comes nearest to V. salicifolia, 
differing in the smaller size, paler bark, and more twiggy habit, in the much smaller 
and more obtuse leaves, in the lax-flowered racemes, in the acute and almost glabrous 
calyx-segments, and in the short broad tube of the corolla and its acute spreading lobes. 
I am indebted to Mr. N. E. Brown for comparing my North Cape specimens with 
Cunningham’s type. 
12. V. pubescens Banks and Sol. ex Benth. in DC. Prodr. x 
(1846) 460.—A slender diffusely branched shrub 4-6 ft. high; branches. 
terete, the younger ones villous with soft spreading white hairs. Leaves. 
spreading or suberect, shortly petiolate, 14-3in. long, }-2in. broad, 
oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute, narrowed towards the base, quite 
entire, midrib and margins and the whole of the under-surface villous 
with short soft white hairs. Racemes axillary, 2-4in. long, din. diam., 
rather slender, many-flowered ; rhachis, pedicels, and calyx densely villous. 
Flowers small, $-$in. diam. Calyx 4-partite ; segments oblong-lanceolate, 
acute. Corolla-tube slender, longer than the calyx; limb with 4 rather 
narrow oblong lobes. Capsule ovate, acute, glabrous, nearly twice as long 
as the calyx.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 193; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 
208; J. B. Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii (1881) 351; Cheesem. Man.. 
N.Z. Fl, (1906) 503; Adamson in Journ. Linn. Soc. xl (1912) 252. 
NortH Istanp: Auckland—Mercury Bay, Banks and Solander; Shoe Island’ 
(off Tairua Harbour) and Cabbage Bay, Adams / | 
Very near to V. salicifolia var. stricta, but at once separated by the copious hairs 
on the young shoots, margins and midribs of the leaves, and inflorescence. Mr. N. E. 
Brown informs me that Mr. Adams’s specimens correspond precisely with Banks and 
Solander’s type. Both Bentham and Hooker describe the plant as being “ every- 
where covered with red-brown hairs,” but on the upper surface of the leaves the hairs 
are confined to the midrib and margins. 
