Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/567

Veronica.]

45. V. pimeleoides, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 195.—A small much-branched prostrate or suberect shrubby plant 3–18 in. high; branches rather slender, straggling, pubescent or almost villous, rarely glabrous. Leaves usually rather laxly placed, rarely closeset, spreading or suberect, sessile, ⅙–⅓ in. long, obovate-oblong or ovate-oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, coriaceous, glaucous, obtusely keeled. Spikes near the tips of the branches, peduncled, exceeding the leaves, ½–1 in. long; rhachis villouspubescent; bracts large, almost or quite equalling the calyx, ciliate. Flowers ¼ in. diam., dark purplish-blue, sessile. Calyx 4-partite; segments ovate, acute, ciliate. Corolla-tube very short, not equalling the calyx; limb broad, spreading, 4-lobed; lobes broad, obtuse, the anterior one narrower than the others. Capsule ⅙ in. long, ovate, acute, turgid, glabrous or slightly pubescent, twice as long as the calyx.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 211; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xiii. (1881) 350.

46. V. Gilliesiana, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 519.—Stems prostrate or decumbent, much branched, 3–12 in. long; branches spreading or suberect, densely leafy, tetragonous, with the leaves on ¼–⅓ in. diam., bright-green when fresh, black when dry. Leaves densely imbricating, opposite pairs connate by