302 Transactions of the [Sess. 



flowers, borne in long spikes. The astringent leaves were at one 

 time used in this country for tea, and are still so used in France. 

 With V. montana I have never yet had the good fortune to meet in 

 a growing state, but I exhibit a dried specimen from the south of 

 England. Its chief features are the very pale green of the leaves, 

 with their long hairy footstalks. The last of the perennial species 

 is V. serpylli folia, or the Thyme-leaved Speedwell. This is a very 

 common species, found on dry banks and waste places. It grows 

 to a height of about four inches, and has small whitish flowers with 

 blue veins, and narrow leaves not unlike those of the plant whose 

 name it has adopted. , 



We now pass on to the commoner annual species. As already 

 said, these may be reckoned as five in number ; and four of them 

 are weak trailing plants, with flowers borne singly in the axils of 

 the leaves. The fifth (V. arvensis) has an upright stem, and the 

 flowers are borne in a terminal spike, like V. serpyllifolia amongst 

 the perennials. Of the trailers, we may take first in order V. hederee- 

 folia, or the Ivy-leaved Speedwell, with very pale-blue flowers, 

 which appear in succession as the branch lengthens, and the cells 

 of the capsule containing one or two seeds. This species is one of 

 the first to flower of all the Speedwells, being sometimes found in 

 January, and with the advancing year it straggles more and more, 

 becoming visibly weaker. Our next species, known as Buxbaum's 

 Speedwell (V. Buxbaumii), is considered by some of our best botan- 

 ists as a doubtful native of Britain. As far as my experience goes, 

 it is somewhat rare in the Edinburgh Flora, though very abundant 

 where it does occur. Its first appearance in Scotland was in Ber- 

 wickshire, where it was noticed in 1850 by Dr George Johnston, 

 and figured and described by him in his elegant work, the ' Botany 

 of the Eastern Borders.' It must be admitted the honour of being 

 by far the handsomest of the annual forms, with its large bright- 

 blue blossoms — though the small lobe of the corolla is always 

 lighter in colour, sometimes nearly white. Its leaves are oblong, 

 dark-green in colour, and deeply serrated. V. arvensis, or the 

 Field Speedwell, is a misnomer, for it no more grows in fields than 

 V. montana is to be found on elevations. It must be looked for 

 on dry old wall-tops, or even by the dusty roadside, where it will 

 be found with a stem three or four inches long ; but when growing 

 on a moist bank, as it may occasionally be found, the stem may 

 have increased to eighteen inches. But it is pre-eminently a wall 

 plant ; and though the flowers are very small, seldom exceeding 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter, yet growing as it does in patches, 

 its pale-blue corolla and little white eye form a very pleasing object. 

 Its petioled lower leaves and alternate bracts, together with its 

 flattened seed-vessels, furnish further marks for identification. Our 

 fourth annual species is V. agrestis, or the Green Field Speedwell. 



