SCROPHULARIACEiE. 165 



rather close wlien they first expand, but becoming distant after the 

 fall of the corolla. Corolla ^ inch across, bright-blue, with darker 

 lines, rarely pale. Capsule rather broader than long, scarcely ^ inch 

 long, often abortive. Plant green, variable in hairiness, not turning 

 black in drying. 



Germander Speedwell. 



French, Veronique Petit Chene. German, Germander Ehrenpreia. 



This beautiful little plant is sometimes, though erroneously, called " eyehright ; " 

 and poets have celebrated its charms under such various names, that it is difficult to 

 recognize it as our common little Speedwell. It is often mistaken for the Forget-me- 

 not by mere superficial observers, and has been immortalized as such in poetic lines. 

 Ebenezer Elliott writes of the 



" Blue eye-bright ! Loveliest flower of all that grow 

 In flower-loved England ! Flower whose hedge-side gaze 

 Is like an infant's ! " 



And another poet tells us of 



" Flowers so blue and golden, 

 Stars that in earth's firmament do shine. 



And the poet, faithful and all-seeing. 

 Sees alike in stars and flowers a part 

 Of the self-same universal being 

 Which is throbbing in his brain and heart. 



Everywhere about us they are glowing, 

 Some like stars, to tell us spring is boi-n ; 

 Others, their blue eyes with tears o'erflowing, 

 Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn." 



It is probable that in " Hyperion " reference is made to the same familiar plant when 

 the author makes his hero stoop " to pluck one bi'ight-blue flower which bloomed alone 

 in the vast desert, and looked up to him, as if to say, ' Oh ! take me with you ; leave 

 me not here companionless.' " 



There is also good reason to think that Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, had in his 

 mind the azure-blue Germander Speedwell when he wrote — 



" When the blewart bears a pearl, 

 And the daisy turns a pea ; 

 When the bonnie lenkeu gowan 

 Has fauldit up her e'e." 



Our little plant answers fairly to his description, closing at night so as to show only the 

 pale and pearly side of its bright petals, and looking as though its tiny stalk bore " a 

 pearl " rather than a flower. Among the old herb doctors this little plant was cele- 

 brated as a'vulnerary, and a remedy in various skin diseases, and was recommended as 

 a specific against pestilent fevers. Its virtues are so curiously introduced by Culpepper 

 in his Herbal of 1624, that we cannot refrain from quoting him entire : — 



