IRbofcora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 4 October, 1902 No. 46 



TWO NORTHEASTERN VERONICAS. 



M. L. Fernald. 



Veronica Beccabunga. 



The common Brooklime, Veronica Beccabunga, of Europe was well 

 known to the older English herbalists as Broklempe or Broklympe 

 and finally as Brooklime, a name which has been the subject of much 

 conjecture among students of English plant-names; and by the 

 German herbalists it was referred to as Bachbunge or Beccabunga. 

 The plant according to Gerard, early in the 17th century, was eaten 

 in salads in the same manner as watercresses, and like them occurred 

 "altogether of his own nature wilde, desiring to grow in waterie 

 places, and such as be continually overflowne, .... by rivers sides, 

 small running brookes, and waterie ditches." x The Brooklime seems 

 now to be in less repute as a salad, for Syme states that " the leaves 

 and young stems of the Brooklime were once in favour as an anti- 

 scorbutic, and even now the young shoots are sometimes eaten as 

 watercresses, the two plants being generally found growing together. 

 They are perfectly wholesome, and might be more frequently 

 employed but for prejudice." 2 And though the plant is not now 

 of much account in medicine it was, as stated by Syme, highly 

 valued in the 16th and 17th centuries as a remedy for scurvy, and 

 "the leaves boyled, strained, and stamped in a stone morter with 

 the pouder of Fenugreek, Lineseeds, and roots of marish Mallowes, 

 and some hogs grease, unto the forme of a cataplasme or pultesse, 

 taketh away any swelling in leg or arme ; wounds also that are ready 



'Gerard, Herbail, ed. Johnson, 621 (1633). 

 * Syme, Engl. Bot. vi. 170 (1876). 



