1930 
* VERONICA perfoliáta. 
Perfoliate Veronica. 
DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. SCROPHULARIACER. 
VERONICA, L.—Calyx 4-rarò 5-partitus, campanulatus vel com- 
pressus. Corolla tubo brevissimo vel rariùs elongato, limbo 4-partito, laciniis 
omnibus integerrimis patentibus planis, supremo latiore. Stamina 2, ad latera 
lacinie corollinee supreme sita, divergentia, inferiorum vestigia nulla. Anthere 
biloculares, loculis apice confluentibus. Stigma vix incrassatum. Capsule val- 
vulae medio septiferz v. bipartibiles. Semina nuda. Herbee, suffrutices, fruti- 
cisve. Folia opposita, alterna vel verticillata. ` Inflorescentia axillaris, race- 
mosa, v. spicata. Flores sepius cerulei,v. albi. Benth. Scroph. Ind. p. 44. 
` 
V. perfoliata ; foliis ovatis acuminatis basi connatis integerrimis glaberrimis, 
i racemis lateralibus pedunculatis multifloris. Dietr. sp. pl. 1. 524. 
V. perfoliata. R. Br. Prodr. 1. 434. Bot. Mag. 1936. Rom. & Sch Syst. 
veg. 1. 119. Mant. 1. 112. 
* An old, but not classical Latin name, whose derivation has occupied and 
perplexed etymologists as much as any upon record. Linneus thought it a cor- 
ruption of Vetonica, which, as Professor: Martyn observes, confounds it with 
Betonica. The same learned writer gives us a Greek etymology, from Hoffmann, 
ġepovikn, composed of gepw to bear, and vun, victory, or distinction, as if we 
should say in English, bearing the bell, on account of its beauty. But we doubt 
whether this be more than a pun. Its common etymology is of a mule kind, 
between Greek and Latin, from verus, or rather vera, true, and exwy, a figure ; 
and this, illiterate and barbarous as it is, has the sanction of the superstitious 
legend of St. Veronica, whose handkerchief is recorded to have received the im- 
pression of our Saviour's face, as he used it, in bearing his cross to the place of 
crucifixion. But we find nothing analogous in any of the herbs which have borne 
this name, nor any character, true or false, stamped upon them, except that of 
their own peculiar beauty. Ambrosius says the word is German, and originated 
in the druggists’ shops of that country, pġ he favours the idea of its being 
Jetony. 'The chief object of this 
corrupted from Vetonica for Betonica, or 
ion of the name in question. If there 
controversy is to learn the true pronunciation 1 ) 
be anv truth in its Greek origin, the i must be long; but if otherwise, the ana- 
logy of Betonica may justify the usual practice, of throwing the accent on the 0. 
—Smith. 
