852 EUPHRASIA. [CLASS XIV. ORDER II. 



Seeds numerous, equally striated. — Name from Euphrosyne, 

 joyful; from the pleasure produced by the medicinal properties 

 of this plant. 



1. E. officinaHis, Linn. (Fig. 985.) Common Eye-bright. Leaves 

 ovate, toothed, the teeth acuminated, those of the upper leaves bristle 

 pointed ; corolla with the upper lip cleft, the lobes two or three toothed, 

 the lower of three unequal emarginate lobes. 



English Botany, t. 1416.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 123.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 236. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 191. 



/S. neglecta. Leaves and bractea all obtusely toothed, the whole 

 plant scarcely hairy. 



Root simple, fibrous, branched. Stem erect, obtusely angular, more 

 or less clothed with close pubescence, from one to six or eight inches 

 high, and either simple or much branched, leafy. Leaves opposite, 

 ovate, sessile, toothed, dark green and furrowed above, paler and 

 strongly ribbed beneath, the margins deeply toothed, the serratures 

 acute, or lengthened into a bristly point, smooth or downy. Lnjlo- 

 rescence solitary axillary sessile flowers, frequently from almost the 

 base of the stem, crowded above into a spike. Flowers though mostly 

 very numerous are frequently few, and at the extremity of the stem and 

 branches, sometimes there is only one flower. Calyx bell-shaped, 

 ribbed and hairy, the limb of four lanceolate teeth. Corolla with a 

 white narrow tube, dilated at the mouth, smooth, the upper lip clothed 

 at the back with close woolliness, bifid, the lobes toothed, the lower lip 

 reflexed, three-cleft, the lobes unequal and notched, the palate yellow, 

 and both lips more or less pink and striated with purple. Stamens with 

 slender Jilaments, the anthers purple, of two lobes, pointed at the base. 

 Style slender, rough. Stigma obtuse. Capsule ovate oblong, downy, 

 notched, furrowed, two celled. Seeds ovate, acute, striated, or fur- 

 rowed, small, brown. 



Habitat. — Pastures and heathy places and mountainous situations ; 

 common. 



Annual ; flowering in July. 



This is an extremely variable plant both as to size and hairiness, and 

 the flowers vary not only in size but number and colour : often in a 

 dry sandy soil, the plant is an inch high, simple, and bearing per- 

 haps only one flower ; or it is six inches high in a more moist situation, 

 and bearing flowers from the axis of almost every leaf. The colour of 

 the flowers is white or pinkish, with a yellow palate, striated with 

 purple, or it is altogether almost purple ; but in all its varieties it is 

 extremely delicate and beautiful, for which reason it seems to have 

 been thought useful in the cure of almost all diseases of the eyes. So 

 famed were its virtues, that Milton represents the Archangel Michael as 

 using it in combination with Rue, to remove the film from the eyes of 

 our first parents, occasioned by eating the forbidden fruit. 

 " Then purged with Euphrasy and rue 

 The visual nerve, for he had much to see." 



