Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/585

Veronica.] thick and coriaceous, glabrous, dark-green. Racemes many-flowered, on strict erect densely pubescent lateral peduncles 3–5 in. long; pedicels ¼–½ in. long, slender. Flowers ¼–⅓ in. diam., white with pink veins. Calyx deeply l-partite; segments broadly ovate, obtuse, margins ciliolate. Corolla-tube very short, limb with 4 rounded spreading lobes. Stamens shorter than the corolla-lobes. Capsule broadly oblong, turgid, emarginate, one-third as long again as the calyx.

79. V. spathulata, Benth. in D.C. Prodr. x. 477.—A small prostrate excessively branched pubescent little plant, forming dense patches 3–9 in. across; branches short, stout, ascending, leafy, clothed with crisped white hairs. Leaves crowded, spreading, petiolate, ⅙–½ in. long including the petiole, ovate-spathulate or deltoid-spathulate, obtuse, coarsely crenate or crenate-lobed, thick and coriaceous, black when dry, more or less hairy on both surfaces; petiole about as long as the blade, broad, channelled. Peduncles near the tips of the branches, short, stout, pubescent, equalling the leaves or nearly twice as long as them, 2–5-flowered; bracts foliaceous, and with the pedicels and calyces densely pubescent. Flowers ¼ in. diam., white. Calyx 4-partite; segments oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse. Corolla-tube short; limb broad, 4-lobed, lobes rounded. Stamens 2, shorter than the corolla-lobes. Capsule equalling or slightly exceeding the calyx, broadly obcordate, pubescent.—''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 197; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 216; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xiii. (1881) 349. V. vulcanica, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 203. V. subrosulata, Col. l.c. xxxi. (1899) 278.

80. V. plebeia, R. Br. Prodr. 435.—Stems slender, leafy, prostrate and rooting, much and diffusely branched, elongated, 1–3 ft. long, usually minutely pubescent. Leaves on rather long petioles; blade ½–1 in. long, broadly ovate or deltoid, obtuse or subacute, cordate or truncate at the base, coarsely and irregularly acutely toothed, 3-nerved, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Racemes lateral, axillary, pedunculate, 2–5 in. long, slender, loosely 5–10-flowered;