FIGWOET TRIBE 9 



16. Vernal Speedwell {F. verna).— Leaves cut and pinnatifid, the 

 upper ones or bracts lanceolate, entire ; flower-stalks shorter than the calyx ; 

 capsule broad, inversely heart-shaped, flattened and margined with roundish 

 lobes, with 12—14 thin flat seeds; annual. This very rare Speedwell has 

 an erect stem, from one to three inches high, simple or branched at the lower 

 part. It is much like the last species, and has in April and May pale blue 

 flowers, which are crowded on the spike. It occurs on sandy heaths about 

 Thetford, Bury, and Mildenhall in Suff"olk. 



17. Blunt-fingered Speedwell (F. iriph^llos). — Leaves broadly egg- 

 shaped, cut, the lower ones stalked, upper ones or bracts sessile, fingered, 

 with obtuse segments ; flower-stalks longer than the calyx ; capsules inversely 

 heart-shaped, flattened, with roundish fringed lobes, and many seeds, which 

 are concave on one side ; annual. This, too, is a very rare species, readily 

 known by its deeply-fingered leaves, and by the dark blue flowers, which 

 expand in April. Its stem is erect, with spreading branches, and is about 

 four or five inches high. The plant has been found at Acomb near York, and 

 on sandy fields about Mildenhall and Bury in Suffolk. 



2. Bartsia (Bdrfsia). 



1. Alpine Bartsia (B. alpina). — Stem erect, hairy; leaves opposite, 

 egg-shaped, slightly clasping, bluntly serrated ; flowers in a terminal, short, 

 leafy spike ; root-stock woody, creeping, and perennial. This is a rare plant 

 of alpine pastures, and has been chiefly found in AVestmoreland, Yorkshire, 

 and other northern counties of England, growing in the grass among rocks, 

 or in similar rocky and mountainous regions of Scotland. The stem is with- 

 out branches, square, and from four to eight inches high. The flowers 

 expand from June to August, are large, of deep, dull purplish-blue, and 

 downy. 



2. Yellow Viscid Bartsia (B. viscusa). — Leaves opposite, upper ones 

 alternate, lanceolate, cut, and serrated; flowers solitary, axillary, distant, 

 upper ones crowded ; stem, leaves and calyx all viscid ; root fibrous and 

 annual. This Bartsia grows in damp places, as marshes and wet meadows, 

 in several parts of the west of England and Wales, in the south-west of 

 Scotland, and the south of Ireland. It is readily known by its large solitary 

 handsome yellow flowers, and by the clammy down which invests the whole 

 plant. It is not common, and except that its flowers do not form a cluster, 

 its general appearance is much like that of the yellow rattle. The stem is 

 round, unbranched, and from three to twelve inches high, and the flowers 

 open from June to October. 



3. Red Bartsia {B. odontites). — Leaves narrow, lanceolate, distantly 

 serrated, upper ones or bracts alternate ; flowers in 1 -sided racemes ; corolla 

 downy, lobes of the lower lip oblong, obtuse ; stem branched, erect, downy ; 

 annual. In one variety of this plant the leaves taper at the base, and the 

 calyx segments are as long as the tube of the corolla, and the capsule oblong. 

 In a form described as Odontites rotundafa, the leaves are broader at the base, 

 the calyx-segments broadly triangular, one-half the length of the tube, the 

 capsule almost rounded. The Red Bartsia is a very common plant in corn- 

 fields or on dry banks, but it has little beauty and no odour with which to 



III.— 2 



