Veronica albicans Petrie

This species, which is very near to V. amplexicaulis, is given provisional recognition in Flora of New Zealand (Vol. 1, p. 919), where it is stated that ‘the best contrasting characters are probably the glabrous subacute capsules, smaller bracts and obvious pedicels of lower flowers’. Petrie’s description appears to have been based, at least partly, on a plant introduced by F. W. Gibbs from Mount Cobb in Nelson province and, according to Cockayne and Allan, this clone, which they considered to be of hybrid origin, was the sole representative of V. albicans in New Zealand gardens (Tr. N.Z. Inst., Vol. 57 (1927), p. 35; ibid., Vol. 60(1929), p. 468). H. albicans is variable in habit in the wild. In Britain, plants agreeing essentially with V. albicans are variable in size and relative width of leaf, but the leaves are always of the oblong order, not or scarcely narrowed at the base. They are usually of horizontal habit, 1 to 2 ft high; but much more in width.