VERONICA OFFICINALIS. ORD. XX. Personate. S6T 
Diandria Monogynia. Lin. Gen. Plant. 25. 
Gen. Ch. Cor. Limbo 4-partito: lacinia infima angustiore. Capsula 
bilocularis. 
Sp. Ch. V. spicis lateralibus pedunculatis, foliis oppositis, caule 
procumbente. 
ROOT perennial, small, fibrous. Stalks about six inches in 
‘length, procumbent, creeping, firm, hairy, or woolly. Leaves 
oblong, obtuse, slightly serrated, or toothed, rough, placed in pairs, 
sessile, or on very short footstalks. Flowers purplish, in spikes, 
either terminal or axillary, each flower standing upon a short 
peduncle, supported by a linear bracteal leaf. Calyx divided into 
four segments, which are ovate, obtuse, and beset with glandular 
hairs. Corolla monopetalous, wheel-shaped, consisting of a short 
tube, terminated by a spreading limb, of a pale blue colour, and 
divided into four unequal portions. Filaments two, white, fur- 
nished with blue heart-shaped anthere. Germen roundish, de- 
pressed, viscous, and at the base glandular, Style filiform, purplish, 
and furnished with a stigma, of a truncated appearance. Capsule 
irregularly heart-shaped, divided into two valves, containing nu- 
merous smal] brown compressed seeds. 
It is not unfrequent on dry barren grounds, and heaths, as that 
of Hampstead, flowering in June and July. 
“ The leaves of Veronica have a weak not disagreeable smell, 
which in drying is dissipated, and which they give over in distilla- 
tion with water, but without yielding any separable oil. To the 
taste they are bitterish, and roughish: an extract made from them 
by rectified spirit is moderately bitter and astringent.”* . 
This plant, a century ago, was much recommended, especially 
in Germany, as a substitute for tea; and the French still distin~ 
guish it by the name of Thé d’Europe. But though this Europea 
tea has a roughness and a slight bitterness which is not ungrateful 
® Lewis. l. c. 
