Blue to Purple Flowers 289 



cient tradition, she wiped the drops of agony from our 

 Saviour's face when on His way to Calvary, and ever after- 

 wards her kerchief bore the vera iconica, " the true Hkeness," 

 of His sacred features. 



Veronica humifusa, or Thyme-leaved Speedwell, may be 

 recognized by its decumbent branching stems ; that is to say, 

 the stems are curved near the base and lie partly on the 

 ground, rooting where the joints touch the earth. Usually 

 these stems grow in pairs and bear at their upper ends spikes 

 of pale gray-blue blossoms striped with dark blue, the tiny 

 flowers also growing at close intervals lower down on the 

 stalks. The small oblong leaves grow in opposite pairs. 

 Occasionally the flowers are white. 



Veronica americana, or' Water Speedwell, is perennial by 

 stolons, or leafy shoots developed in the autumn. The 

 stems are stout, often rooting at the nodes, and usually 

 branched. The leaves are lanceolate, acute, serrulate or 

 entire and short-petioled. The peduncled racemes are borne 

 in the axils of the leaves, and the flowers are pale blue with 

 purplish stripes. 



BUTTERWORT 



Pingiiicula vulgaris. Bladderwort Family 



Stems: scape glabrous, tall. Leaves: from three to seven in a rosette 

 at the base of the scape, entire, ovate, obtuse. Flowers: one-flowered; 

 calyx five-parted ; corolla bilabiate, the upper lip two-cleft, the lower 

 one three-cleft, base of the corolla saccate and contracted into a nectar- 

 iferous, acute, nearly straight spur. 



At first sight the Butterwort looks like a lovely large pur- 

 ple violet, but a second glance reveals its rosette of very 

 pale green leaves, with their involute margins, and the 

 traveller at once recognizes the Pingiiicula, its name being 

 derived from the Latin pingiiis, " fat," and referring to the 



