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Hebe dieffenbachii (Benth.) Ckn. & Allan

Modern name

Hebe dieffenbachii Cockayne & Allan

Synonyms

Veronica dieffenbachii Benth.

A shrub of wide-spreading habit 3 to 4 ft high. Leaves narrow-oblong, 2 to 4 in. long, 12 to 1 in. wide, pointed, thick in texture, rather pale green, the base stalkless and partially clasping the stem. Racemes showy, produced in pairs a little below the apex of the shoot in the leaf-axils, 3 or 4 in. long, 34 to 1 in. wide, densely crowded with blossom. Flowers 14 in. diameter, purplish lilac or white. Bot. Mag., t. 7656.

Native of the Chatham Islands, where it was discovered in 1841 by Dieffenbach. It is closely allied, and bears a considerable resemblance to H. speciosa, from which it differs in its generally narrower, paler green sessile leaves, its round, not angled stems, and in the seed-vessel being about thrice (instead of twice) the length of the calyx. It is tender.


Genus

Hebe

Other species in the genus