Blue is not a Favourite Colour.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 142, 17 June 1931, Page 6

Blue is not a Favourite Colour .

Nature Notes.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

VERONICAS are more highly developed in New Zealand than in any country. In many places they are a conspicuous part of the plant life. A particularly good group of them may be seen in the Native Section of the Public Gardens. They are the largest group of flowering plants in the Dominion. Most of them, including those known by their Maori name, Koromiko, are beautiful in form, foliage and flower, especially Veronica speciosa, whose deep purple or crimson flowers are seen in many a New Zealand garden. Contrasting with it are many Veronicas whose flowers are the purest white. Others have white flowers with a roseate or pale pink blush. There are flowers lilac-purple,

pale lilac, pale pink, pale rose, white with purple lines, pale blue, lavender blue and purple-blue; but only one New Zealand species, which grows on the Auckland and Campbell Islands and nowhere else, has flowers that are bright blue, true blue. To compensate for this lack of blue in the Dominion’s Veronicas, there grows abundantly in fields and waste places in many parts of New Zealand Veronica agrestis, the English speedwell, emblem of good wishes, whose salver-shaped flowers were described by Tennyson as “ the speedwell’s darling blue.” The drawing represents one of the most charming natives, Veronica macrantha, which has large flowers; pure white.