122 T'T.OWFRS ()!• I..\KI>, RIVERS, ETC. 



The plant is aqiialic. and needs no soil except the usual sub- 

 aqueous mud. 



Two beetles, J'rasocHi-is jiiiici, (ryuiiioimiivu l>cfajl>uiiga\ and a 

 ninth, .Itlialia aniiu/ata. feed on it. 



Bcccabunga, DodoniLiis, is from ( u rnian Jhiili bimge — /Jar/;, a brook, 

 bniioi\ bunch. 



The plant is called Beckydeaves, Broklembe, lirooklime. Cow- 

 cress, Horse Cress. Horse-well Grass. Limewort, Linipwort, Water 

 Pini]iernel. W all ink, W atcr l'urp\ , W ell-ink. In Chaucer's day it was 

 used lor swellings, i^out, &c. It is gathered with W aler Cress, being 

 acrid, disagreeable, and [joisonous. Ikit it is used as a spring salad 

 occasionally. 



Essential Specii-ic Charactkrs: — 



237. Veronica Beccabmiga, L. — .Stem rooting below, prostrate, 

 glabrous, leaves stalked, o\'al. serrate, llowc-rs blue, in axillary racemes, 

 capsule globular. 



Water Mint (.Mentha aciuatic.i, L.) 



Like numerous other aquatic types, Water Mint finds a place in the 

 ancient floras preserved to us. It is represented in Pregiacial beds at 

 Pakefield, Suffolk; Interglacial and Roman beds at Silchester. The 

 present distribution of the plant is Europe, X. Africa, X. and W. Asia, 

 and it has been introduced into North America. This plant is uni- 

 versal in distribution in Britain, growing in everv countv in Great 

 Britain as far north as the Orkneys, and up to a height of 1500 ft., for 

 instance, in Yorks. It is a native also ot Ireland and the Chamiel 

 Islands. 



Water Mint is a hygrophyte, luxuriating in the moisture of river- 

 sides, wet places by ditches, pools, and ponds, around the margins of 

 which it forms quite a fringe in many places. Wherever a spring 

 issues from a hill-side, one will also tmtl it. It is a regular component 

 of marsh and bog Horas. 



The stem is erect, stoloniferous with creeping shoots, many growing 

 in a bed in association, square, roughly hairy, and lealy. The leaves 

 are egg-shaped, stalked, coarsely toothed, roughly hairy, heart-shaped 

 at the base. The uppermost leaves answer as bracts, and are less than 

 the tlowers. 



The flowers are in a globular head, lilac, in whorls or forming 

 a terminal head. The teeth of the calyx equal the tube, and are tri- 

 angular. The calyx is regular or 2-lipped. glandular and hairy both 



