244 BLViE lO PURPLE 



/\ coiifcrtiis var. cierulco-fnrpurcns, or Blue Beard-tongue, 

 is \cr}' like /'. confcrtns^ or Yellow Beard-tongue, described 

 in the Yellow to Orange Section. 



Its flowers are bright blue or violet, and are usually set in 

 two dense circles round the stem, though there is also a low- 

 growing form of this species found in the mountains which 

 has blue flowers growing in a simple terminal cluster. 



ALPINE SPEEDWELL 



Vero)tica alpiiia. Figwort Family 



Stems: erect, slender, usually simple. Leaves: oblong, ovate, sessile, 

 mostly rounded at lioth ends, nearly entire. Flowers: in a short narrow 

 raceme ; corolla rotate, its tube very short, deeply four-lobed, the lower 

 lobe the narrowest. 



These small azure-blue blossoms win llic l()\e of many a 

 traveller by reason of the fact that they are among the last 

 flowers he sees growing in the crevices of the great moraines 

 that fringe the glaciers, and are frequently the first ones 

 to meet his eyes as he comes off the snowy ice-fields after 

 making some arduous ascent. 



"The liule speedwell's darling blue" 



renders it consj^jicuous, though its flowers are very small 

 indeed, being clustered together at the tops of the stems. 

 One marked peculiarity of the Speedwells is that the blossoms, 

 which arc cleft into fom- lobes, usually have the lower segment 

 narrower ihan the rest. The Dutch call this ])lant " Honour 

 and I'l'aise," because it was once upon a Ume behe\ed to 

 contain \aluahlc nicthciiial properties. Man\' claimed il to be 

 an excellent remedy for scrofifla, and it was ihe gieal Lin- 

 naeus himself who grou])ed il, together with all its lelatixes, 

 under the famil\- name of Scro/>//ii /aria era, or Figwort. 



The term / 'cronica suggests far more beautiful associations. 

 Here the plant is named after Saint Veronica, who in her 



