Veronica × lewisii J.B.Armstr.

Described by Armstrong from specimens collected on dunes near the sea in Canterbury province, some near Timaru. It is a densely branched shrub to 6 ft high with downy stems. Leaves pale green, 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long, 3⁄4 to 1 in. wide, oblong or elliptic-oblong, obtuse to acute at the apex, distinctly ciliate. Flowers, according to Armstrong, white, pale purple or blue and up to 1⁄2 in. wide across the limb. They are densely arranged in racemes up to 21⁄2 in. long and 11⁄2 in. wide.

A form of V. × lewisii (= Hebe × amabilis (Cheeseman) Cockayne & Allan; V. salicifolia var. gracilis Kirk) was collected near The Bluff, south of Invercargill in Otago province, and is well figured in Kirk’s Forest Flora of New Zealand, t. 120. A shrub 6 to 15 ft high. Leaves oblong-elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 2 to 4 in. long, 3⁄4 to I in. wide, glabrous, flowers white, large, 3⁄8 in. across at the mouth, with a short broad tube not much longer than the calyx. Capsules about twice as long as calyx. This very robust form of the cross was likened by Kirk to V. macrocarpa but that species has the leaf-buds without sinus, whereas the sinus would be well marked in any cross between V. salicifolia and V. elliptica. And in V. macrocarpa (q.v.) the capsules are very large.

Another form of V. × lewisii (described by Cheeseman as V. × amabilis var. blanda (V. × blanda (Cheeseman) Pennell)) was said to have smaller leaves, up to 21⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide, more closely set, and shorter, relatively broad racemes. Flowers white, 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. across; perhaps commoner than the typical form in New Zealand.

V. × lewisii has certainly been in cultivation in Cornwall and might still be found there or in other west coast gardens.

Armstrong thought this was V. elliptica × speciosa, but the latter species does not extend nearly so far south as Canterbury province, and in Flora of New Zealand it is suggested that the hybrid is of the same parentage as V. × amabilis. If this is the case, V. × lewisii would be the correct name for the cross V. elliptica × salicifolia.