248 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
these hairs are white, in others purple. The Common 
Mullein is the Verbascum thapsus, the Heg-taper 
or Hedge-candle of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. The 
old Latin name was Barbascwm, from the bearded 
stamens, and this by a process quite common among 
our forefathers, judging from numerous examples, 
has been corrupted into Verbascwm. 
The Speedwells (Veronica), with their little bright- 
blue flowers, do not appear at first sight to present 
any resemblance to the 
Mulleins, yet apart from 
size and colour there is 
not a very wide difter- 
ence. There is the 
shallow tube to the 
corolla in most 
species, with the 
stamens attached to 
its mouth and hanging 
far out; but, with the 
reduction in size from 
the founder of the 
EP nee Su sedivell family the Veronicas 
have lost one of the 
lobes of both calyx and corolla; not only so, but they 
have lost three of the originally five stamens. Sup- 
posing that the first Veronica was similar to the 
common but beautiful Germander Speedwell (V. 
chamedrys), we can understand why only two 
stamens came ultimately to be developed. The 
purple style stands a long way out from the flower 
with a slight upward curve, and the two blue stamens 
spread out in front of the side lobes. There is a 
