N. ORD.—SCROPHULARIACEA. 114 
Tribe.—SIBTHORPIEA, VERONICEA, etc. 
GENUS.—VERONICA,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
LEPTANDRA. 
CULVER’S PHYSIC. 
SYN.—VERONICA VIRGINICA, LINN.; V. PURPUREA, STEUD.; V. SIBI- 
RICA, LINN.; V. JAPONICA, STEUD.; LEPTANDRA VIRGINICA, NUTT. ; 
PAIDEROTA VIRGINICA, TORR.; CALLISTACHYA VIRGINICA, AND 
EUSTACHYA ALBA, RAF. 
COM. NAMES.—CULVER’S ROOT OR PHYSIC, BLACK ROOT, TALL SPEED- 
WELL, HIGH VERONICA. WHORLY WORT, QUINTEL, HINI; (FR.) 
VERONIQUE DE VIRGINIE; (GER.) VIRGINISCHER EHRENPREIS. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH ROOT OF VERONICA VIRGINICA, LINN. 
Description.—This graceful perennial herb grows to a height of from 1 to 7 
feet. Root horizontal, blackish, sometimes branched, scarred upon its upper sur- 
face by the previous growths, and giving off from the nether numerous long and 
fibrous rootlets. S¢em simple, strict, and glabrous. Leaves whorled in numerous 
clusters of from 3 to 9; short petioled, lanceolate, acute, tapering at both ends, 
finely serrate, and often downy beneath especially upon the veins. zflorescence 
in from 1 to g terminal, panicled, spike-like, densely-flowered racemes; flowers 
small, nearly sessile; bracts very small, subulate. Calyx 4-parted, persistent ; 
sepals lanceolate, acute. Corolla salver-form, pubescent within, the tube much 
longer than the 4-parted limb, and greatly exceeding the calyx; dodes erect, acute, 
the upper broadest, the lower narrowest. Séamens 2, far exserted ; filaments hairy, 
inserted low down upon each side of the upper lobe of the corolla and about twice 
its length; avthers rather large, 2-celled; cells confluent at the apex. Ovary supe- 
rior, 2-celled ; s¢y/e columnar, entire, exserted, persistent ; stigma solitary, capitate. 
Fruit an oblong-ovate, 2-celled pod, not notched at the apex nor much flattened ; 
dehiscence by 4 apical teeth, at length becoming somewhat loculicidal; seeds numer- 
ous, black, oval, and terete; esfa minutely reticulated. | 
History and Habitat.—This most graceful and attractive of all American © 
Veronicas, habits moist wooded banks from Canada and the valley of Winnipeg, 
to Georgia, Alabama, and Missouri. It blossoms contemporaneously with Cimi- 
and, when viewed at a distance, the two plants appear to be the 
ifuga early in July, a 
cifug y in July grace which would render it poetically suitable — 
same, while either has a beauty and 
for a fairy’s wand, The species also grows in Japan an 
_* Dedicated to St. Veronica ; or, perhaps, a play upon Betonica, ree 
d Eastern India,and varies 
