South Island: Marlborough—Lower Wairau, Travers, Monro; Macrae's Run, Monro; Awatere Valley, MacMahon! Kirk! Kaikoura Mountains, Sinclair, Buchanan! Kirk! Canterbury—Hills in the northern part of the province, Armstrong! Var. oblonga; Marlborough—Awatere Valley, Kirk! J. H. MacMahon! Mount Fyfe, Cockayne! Sea-level to 3000 ft. November–December.
A handsome species, better known in cultivation than in a wild state. Mr. H. J. Matthews informs me that the var. Fairfieldii, which was descrioed as a distinct species by Hooker, originally appeared in the Fairfield Gardens, near Dunedin, where many species of Veronica are cultivated, and has never been found in a wild state. It is probably a hybrid between V. Hulkeana and V. Lavaudiana.
67. V. Lavaudiana, Raoul, Choix Pl. Nouv. Zel. 16, t. 10.—A small sparingly branched shrub 3–9 in. high; branches rather stout, decumbent at the base, then erect, leafy, terete, glabrous below, puberulous above. Leaves rather crowded, spreading, ⅓–1 in. long, broadly obovate or obovate-spathulate, rounded at the tip, gradually narrowed into a short stout petiole, crenate-serrate, very coriaceous, dark-green usually margined with red. Spikes short. ¼–¾ in. long, arranged in a broad hemispherical many-fiowered corymb sometimes 2 in. diam. or more; peduncle rather long, erect, and with the pedicels glandular-pubescent; bracts ovate or ovate-lanceolate, pilose and ciliate. Flowers small, sessile, ¼–⅓ in. diam. Calyx 4-partite; segments ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent. Corolla-tube rather longer than the calyx; lobes 4, spreading, unequal, obtuse. Capsule exceeding the calyx, oblong, obtuse, pubescent.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 195; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 214; Bot. Mag. t. 7210; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 350.
South Island: Canterbury—Abundant in rocky places on Banks Peninsula, Raoul, Lyall, &c.; river-beds of the Canterbury Plains, rare, Lyall, Travers, Armstrong! Sea-level to 2500 ft. November–December.
68. V. Raoulii, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 214.—A stout much-branched woody little shrub 4–12 in. high; branches often procumbent below, terete, ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves, leafy above, pubescent. Leaves spreading or suberect, ⅓–¾ in. long, oblong-spathulate, obtuse or acute, gradually narrowed into a rather long petiole, crenate-serrate, very thick and coriaceous, yellow-green, flat, veinless. Spikes very short, either arranged in a broad terminal panicle or corymb 1–2 in. across, or forming smaller lateral corymbs or heads; peduncles and pedicels puberulous; bracts ovate, ciliolate. Flowers small, sessile, ⅕–¼ in. diam. Calyx 4-partite; segments ovate-oblong, obtuse, ciliolate. Corolla-tube short; lobes 4, broadly oblong, rounded. Capsule exceeding the calyx, oblong, obtuse.—Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 350; Cockayne in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 379 (development of seedling).
