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| ( 2) 
Sp. Cb. V. fpicis lateralibus pedunculatis, foliis oppofitis, caule 
procumbente, > 
ROOT perennial, fmall, ftbrous, Stalks about fix inches. in 
length, procumbent, creeping, firm, hairy, or woolly. Leaves 
oblong, obtufe, flightly ferrated, or toothed, rough, placed in pairs, 
{eflile, or on very fhort footftalks, Flowers purplith, in fpikes, either 
terminal or axillary, each flower ftanding upon a fhort peduncle, 
fupported by a linear bracteal leaf. Calyx divided into four feg- 
ments, which are ovate, obtufe, and befet with glandular hairs. 
Corolla monopetalous, wheel-fhaped, confifting of a fhort tube, ter- 
minated by a {preading limb, of a pale blue colour, and divided into 
- four unequal portions. Filaments two, white, furnifhed with blue 
heart-fhaped anthere. Germen roundith, depreffed, vifcous, and at 
the bafe glandular. Style filiform, purplifh, and furnifhed with a 
ftigma, of a truncated appearance. Capfule irregularly heart-fhaped, 
divided into two valves, containing numerous {mall brown compreffed 
feeds. - | 
It is not unfrequent on dry barren grounds, and heaths, as that of 
Hampftead, flowering in,June and July. 
“ The leaves of Veronica have a weak not difagreeable fmell, 
which in drying is diffipated, and which they give over in diftillation 
with water, but without yielding any feparable oil. To the tafte 
they are bitterifh, and roughiih: an extract made from them by 
rectified {pirit is moderately bitter and aftringent.” * 
This plant, a century ago, was much recommended, efpecially 
in Germany, as a fubftitute for tea; and the French ftill diftin- 
guith it by the name of Thé d’ Europe. _ But though this European 
tea has a roughnefs and a flight bitternefs, which is not ungrateful 
to the tafte, yet thefe qualities are fo unlike thofe which we difcover, 
in the foreign tea, that the extremely high’ price of the latter, at that 
time, muft have been the chief reafon for caufing a contrary opinion, 
and of reconciling Europeans to a fubftitute fo imperfect as the leaves 
ef Veronica. 
* Lewis. 1. ¢. 
> 4 As 
