144 GUERNSE Y. 
Veronica polita, Fries. Grey Procumbent Speedwell. 
Native or Colonist. First record: Babington, 1839. 
Frequent throughout the island in waste spots and on roadsides, 
also as a weed in cultivated ground. 
Veronica Buxbaumii, Ten. Buxbaum’s Speedwell. 
Colonist. First record: Marquand, 1891. 
Very common everywhere in cultivated ground. This plant 
offers a remarkable instance of the rapid spread throughout the 
whole country of a weed of cultivation. It was introduced into 
England about the year 1820 or 1822, and was first figured and 
described as a British plant, under the name of Veronica filiformis, 
Lam., by Johnston, in 1829, in his Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed. 
On p. 226 of that work the author says Borrer ‘found it several 
years ago near Henley [a slip of the pen for Henfield] in Sussex, 
and communicated specimens to Sir J. E. Smith and others; but it 
is singular that no notice is taken of it in the EZzglish Flora [1824] 
nor, so far as we know, in any work on the botany of this island.” 
The plant was still such a rarity in 1842 that about half a dozen 
localities are specified for it in Hooker’s British Flora, ed. 5. By 
the year 1865, however, it had spread so widely as to be described 
by Bentham (Handb. Brit. Fl.) as occurring ‘rather frequently in 
England, southern Scotland, and southern Ireland.’ Twenty years 
later it was noted in the eighth edition of the London Catalogue as 
found in no less than eighty out of the 112 British counties and vice- 
counties. At this distance of time it is impossible to ascertain when 
Veronica Buxbaumi first made its appearance in Guernsey, but it 
certainly was not known here in 1838, or it would have been 
detected either by the keen-eyed author of the Flora Sarnica or by 
his able coadjutors. 
Veronica hederifolia, L. Lvy-leaved Speedwell. 
Native or Colonist. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
A very common weed all over the island in gardens and other 
cultivated land. 
This little plant is known in some parts of England by the name 
of Mother of Wheat, the prevalent notion being that wherever it 
grows freely the soil is well suited for the cultivation of corn. 
LABIATAE. 
Mentha viridis, L. Spear Mint. 
Alien or Denizen. First found: Andrews, 1899. 
Very rare. Waste ground near the Vale Road, plentiful in 1899 
(Andrews). Not quite typical, and, in the opinion of Mr. J. G. 
Baker, coming between w7idis and sylvestris. Mr. Andrews has 
found another form in an old quarry near Le Jardin (vu1.), which 
