CORN SPEEDWELL 



Leaves. — Lower leaves opposite, petiolcd, round-ovate 

 or subcordate, crenate or crenulate, obtuse, one-eighth to 

 one-half an inch long. Upper leaves broad-ovate, sessile, 

 with a short-pediccUed flower in the axil. 



Flowers. — Small, pale blue, striped, 

 solitary. 



Calyx. — Four-parted. 



Corolla. — Wheel-shaped, deeply four- 

 cleft, lower division narrowest, pale blue 

 with darker lines. 



Stamens. — Two, inserted in the short 

 tube of the corolla, flaring. 



Pistil. — Ovary two-celled; style one; 

 stigma two-lobed. 



Fruit. — Obcordate capsule, two-celled, 

 few-seeded. 



Veronica arvensis is the earliest of the 

 Speedw^ell group to bloom; along its 



,1 •, • T^ V, Com Speedwell. 



southern range it appears m February, verdnka arvensis 

 on Capitol Hill in Washington in early 

 March. It there makes little beds and patches, often 

 in company with Henbit and Chickweed. After a 

 warm rain, when the sun is shining, numberless blue 

 eyes are open, looking upward, but if the day is gray 

 and cold the Speedwells doze. The plant, though an 

 annual, is able thus early to enter the race because its 

 seedlings get so far along the previous autumn that 

 when the first warmth of spring comes they are ready 

 to bloom. 



The plant rises tw^o or three inches and carpets the 

 ground by means of its prostrate and creeping stems. 

 The leaves are roundish, rather thick in texture, with 

 small scalloped margins. The stems and leaves are 

 sometimes hairy and often smooth. 



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