Flora of New Zealand Series

Veronica albicans Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 49, 1917, 53.

"A closely branched low shrub". Branchlets stout "marked by a pubescent tract running down from between the leaves and often extending along the leaf-bases," length of internodes 1-2 × diam., older branches dark. Lvs spreading to imbricate, 1·5-2-(3) cm. × 8-15 mm., broad-ovate to oblong, thick and glaucous; lf-bud without sinus, the lf sessile with broad sts subcordate base; lamina broadly to narrowly obtuse, glab., entire, margins bevelled, midrib us. evident. Infls lateral, simple, 3-6 cm. long, broad to top; peduncles < lvs, sparsely villous-pubescent; fls crowded. Bracts 1·5-2.5 mm. long, very narrow, ciliolate, those near base < pedicels. Calyx-lobes 2-3 mm. long, narrow-ovate, subacute, ciliolate. Corolla white, "tube wide, twice as long as calyx, the limb cut into 4 short broad, obtusely rounded lobes". Capsule erect, glab., "ovate or elliptic-ovate, subacute, about 2 × calyx".

DIST.: S. Mountains of Nelson.

FL. 12-4. Original record: "Mount Arthur and Mount Cobb, north-west Nelson: H. J. Matthews! F. G. Gibbs!"

The citation of a type presents difficulties. Cockayne (T.N.Z.I. 60, 1929, 468) selected as "the type" the specimens, said to be in Herb. Petrie, from a plant collected by F. G. Gibbs on Mt. Cobb and cultivated in Petrie's garden. Several of Petrie's specimens in W are labelled "Grown in Auckland, wild plant from Mts. N.W. Nelson, ex F. G. Gibbs"; some are undated, the others have dates in 1918 and 1919, i.e. later than publication of the sp. Evidently at least two plants are involved since Petrie has labelled some sheets "var. procumbens"; the locality Mt. Cobb is not mentioned on any.

Petrie lists features in which H. albicans differs from H. amplexicaulis but few of these provide constant distinctions between Nelson and Canterbury plants. Lvs are us. narrower and corollas us. longer in H. albicans but its best contrasting characters are probably the glab. subacute capsules, smaller bracts and obvious pedicels of lower fls.

Cockayne and Allan (T.N.Z.I. 57, 1926, 35) regarded H. albicans as probably a hybrid or two hybrids belonging to the "astonishing mixture" of glaucous-lvd shrubby hebes in Nelson. Though more specimens are now available no critical work has yet been done on this group. The name H. albicans is retained as a convenient means of referring to the somewhat diverse assemblage of plants covered by the above description, which includes quotations from Petrie's diagnosis.