Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/539

Veronica.]

1. V. speciosa, ''R. Cunn. in Bot. Mag.'' sub. t. 3461.—A stout glabrous shrub 2–5 ft. high with numerous spreading leafy branches; branchlets thick, angled, ¼–⅓ in. diam. Leaves spreading, sessile or on very short thick petioles, 2–4 in. long, 1–1¾ in. broad, obovate or obovate-oblong, rounded at the tip, truncate or slightly cordate at the base or narrowed into the petiole, thick and coriaceous, dark-green and glossy, midrib downy above, lateral veins obsolete, margins entire. Racemes axillary and opposite, near the tips of the branches, not much longer than the leaves, very stout and dense-flowered, sometimes exceeding 1½ in. diam.; rhachis puberulous; pedicels short, spreading. Flowers large, ⅓ in. diam., dark reddish-purple or violet-purple. Calyx 4-partite; segments ovate, subacute or obtuse, ciliolate. Corolla-tube broad, funnel-shaped, half as long again as the calyx; limb 4-lobed; lobes oblong, obtuse, the dorsal lobe rather larger than the lateral, anterior the smallest. Capsule ¼–⅓ in. long, ovate, compressed, more than twice as long as the calyx.—''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 373; Raoul, Choix, 43; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 191; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 206; Bot. Mag. t. 4057; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 351. V. Kermesina, Loud. Encyc. Pl.'' 1546.