Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/547

Veronica.], acute, ciliolate. Corolla with a short and broad funnel-shaped tube and large spreading 4-lobed limb; dorsal and lateral lobes subequal, anterior rather smaller. Capsule ¼ in. long, ovate, acute, compressed, about twice as long as the calyx.

13. V. chathamica, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vii. (1875) 338, t. 13, f. 1.—A prostrate or trailing shrub, with much-branched stems 6–18 in. long; branches numerous, terete, sparingly softly pubescent or almost glabrous. Leaves usually close-set, spreading, sessile or very shortly petiolate, ½–1 in. long, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, obtuse or subacute, fiat, subcoriaceous, glabrous or nearly so. Racemes several towards the tips of the branches, peduncled; flowering portion ½–1 in. long and almost as broad, broadly oblong, obtuse, dense-flowered; rhachis, pedicels, and bracts pubescent, the latter equalling or exceeding the pedicels. Flowers ⅕–¼ in. diam., purple. Calyx deeply 4-partite; segments ovate-lanceolate, acute. Corolla-tube short, not much longer than the calyx; limb 4-lobed; dorsal and lateral lobes nearly equal, anterior smaller. Capsule about ⅕ in. long, ovate, subacute, compressed, about twice as long as the calyx.—''Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 351; Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xxviii. (1896) 528.

14. V. acutiflora, Benth. in D.C. Prodr. x. 460.—A small erect sparingly branched shrub; branches slender, terete, glabrous or the ultimate ones very minutely puberulous. Leaves sessile, spreading, 2–3 in. long, ⅙–¼ in. broad, linear-lanceolate, narrowed to an obtuse tip, flat or nearly so, quite smooth and glabrous or the midrib puberulous above, margins entire. Racemes opposite and axillary near the tips of the branches, 2–4 in. long, slender, lax-flowered; rhachis, pedicels, and bracts pubescent or glabrate;. pedicels slender, the lowest ⅙ in. long. Flowers ⅙–⅕ in. diam. Calyx deeply 4-partite; segments long, ovate-lanceolate, acute,