GAMOPETAL^ 153 



the wayside bank, its grace and beauty are evident to 

 every passer-by. 



The Germander Speedwell is everywhere abundant 

 in the British Isles, and also in the Channel Islands. 

 It is found at an altitude of 2700 ft. in the Highlands. 



The habitat is woods, copses, pastures, fields, 

 hedgebanks, roadsides, banks. On clays and loams 

 the plant occurs in the damp oakwood, as well as on 

 neutral grass-land in the open. In limestone districts 

 it is found on limestone grass-land, as well as on 

 alluvial silt in the marsh formation. 



The habit is prostrate, then erect. The stem is 

 slender, creeping with slender, ascending branches. 

 There is a row of hairs on opposite sides of the stem 

 in each internode. The leaves are in pairs, on short 

 stalks, ovate to heart-shaped, scalloped, coarsely- 

 toothed, hairy. 



The flowers are in axillary, loose, long racemes 

 with linear bracts, which are not so long as the 

 ultimate flower-stalks, the main flower-stalks slender, 

 ascending in fruit. The flowers are large, numerous, 

 bright blue. The calyx is four-cleft, the sepals linear 

 to lance-shaped, acute. The corolla may be pink in 

 colour. The capsule is flat, inversely heart-shaped, 

 broader than long, with a deep notch, downy, fringed 

 with hairs, not so long as the calyx. 



In height the plant is 6-20 in., usually about 8 in. 

 The flowers are in bloom in May or earlier, up to 

 June or later. The plant is a herbaceous perennial. 



The flowers are conspicuous and numerous, and 



