Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/546

506 11. V. amabilis, Cheesem. n. sp.—A tall branching shrub 6–15 ft. high or even more; branches rather slender, terete, quite glabrous or the younger ones minutely puberulous. Leaves spreading, shortly petiolate, 2–4 in. long, ⅔–1 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, firm but hardly coriaceous, flat, smooth and glabrous, midrib obscurely puberulous above, margins entire. Racemes axillary and opposite near the tips of the branches, 4–6 in. long, slender, lax-flowered, usually attenuate at the tip; pedicels slender, the lower ones often ⅓ in. long or more. Flowers large, ⅓ in. diam., white. Calyx deeply 4-partite; segments ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, ciliolate. Corolla-tube short and broad, equalling the calyx or rather longer than it; limb 4-lobed; lobes oblong, obtuse. Capsule ¼ in. long, ovate, acute, twice as long as the calyx.—V. salicifolia var. gracilis, T. Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 120.

12. V. Lewisii, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 357.—A handsome closely branched erect shrub 3–6 ft. high; branches stout, terete, clothed with short and fine greyish-white pubescence. Leaves pale-green, spreading, shortly petiolate, 1½–2½ in. long, ¾–1 in. broad, oblong or elliptic-oblong, acute or subacute, rounded or truncate or subcordate at the base, coriaceous, glabrous above, midrib often puberulous beneath, margins edged with a soft white pubescent line. Racemes near the tips of the branches, short and stout, 2–2½ in. long, 1 in. diam., dense-flowered; rhachis, pedicels, and bracts finely pubescent. Flowers large, ⅓ in. diam. or even more, pale-blue. Calyx 4-partite; segments