Veronica stenophylla Steud.

A shrub 3 to 5 ft high, occasionally more, of rather thin, loose habit; branches slender, erect, glabrous and shining, turning dark brown towards the end of the season. Leaves stalkless (leaf-buds without sinus), linear, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. wide, tapering to a point, perfectly glabrous, often pointing downwards. Racemes in pairs from the leaf-axils near the summit of the shoot, 2 to 5 in. long, 3⁄4 in. wide; the basal flowers opening long before the terminal ones. Flowers white, tinged more or less with lilac, 1⁄6 to 1⁄4 in. diameter; tube of corolla slender, twice or thrice as long as the sepals, which are erect, oblong, edged with minute hairs. Individual flower-stalk slender, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long, and, like the main-stalk of the raceme, minutely downy. Bot. Mag., t. 5965.Native of the South Island of New Zealand and probably also of North Island; introduced about 1868, perhaps before. It is very distinct in its narrow leaves and purple-brown stems, and has considerable merit as a flowering shrub, producing its graceful racemes from July until November in successive pairs near the top of the growing shoot. It succumbs in severe winters.

[From the Supplement (Vol. V)]

On page 351 of the main work it was suggested that the hebe distributed by some nurserymen as ‘Spender’s Seedling’ is a hybrid of this species and variety with V. stricta. This conclusion is really based on its not agreeing at all points with the description in Flora of New Zealand. But V. parviflora is variable in its minuter botanical characters and there is no doubt that this plant belongs to V. stenophylla. It seeds itself freely, and a seedling allowed to grow on beside the parent plant studied agreed with it perfectly. It is among the most ornamental of the genus, of pleasingly informal aspect and flowering abundantly for a month from the end of July. It survives all but the severest winters. For the true ‘Spender’s Seedling’, see the section of garden hybrids in this supplement.