32 



FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



Bog Speedwell is a hygrophyte, or moisture-loving plant, which 

 grows in damp places, and was probably once more frequent, but owing 

 to drainage is now local. It grows in marsh v tracts and bogs with 

 Bog Pimpernel, Asphodel, «S;c., and is found by the margins of pools, 

 lakes, as well as in ditches, brooks, and rivers, where the ground is 

 flooded. 



The habit is that of a trailer, the plant being seldom more than 

 suberect. It gives off young shoots above the surface; the stem is 



subangular, smooth, and 

 branched. A character- 

 istic feature is to be found 

 in the long lance-shaped- 

 linear leaves, slightly 

 toothed along the margin, 

 opposite, stalkless, and 

 smooth. In a variety the 

 stems and leaves are 

 hairy. 



The flowers are borne 

 on alternating racemes, 

 which are axillary, loose, 

 wavy, and many-flowered. 

 I he bracts or leaflike 

 organs are lance-shaped. 

 The flower-stalks are pen- 

 dulous. The caly.K is 

 deeply cut. The corolla 

 is wheel-shaped, white or 

 pinkish, with purple veins. 

 The capsule consists of 

 with rounded, flat, vellow 



>!SL.::yc 



9« 



Pliolo, A R IlorivouJ 



Bog Spekdwei.l (I'cronicn sciilfllala, L. ) 



flattenecl, 



two rounded lobes, which are 

 seeds. 



Bog Speedwell is often 2 ft. long. The flowers open in June, 

 July, and August. The plant is perennial, propagated by division. 



The floral mechanism is like that of Ivy-leaved Toadfla.x, but the 

 flowers are in axillary racemes, and the plant grows in boggy places 

 where it is obscured by herbage, which helps to support it, and little 

 likely to be cross-pollinated by insect agency very frequently. The 

 corolla is white or pink, wheel-shaped, the 2 filaments are thicker in 

 the middle, and the anthers are white. The style is drooping and 

 white, the stigma also turned back and yellow. 



