170 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



very short, rarely above twice its own breadth. Racemes 2 to 4 

 inches long. Bracts variable in length. Flowers bright-blue, with 

 darker veins, rarely pink, when it is V. limosa (Lejean). Capsule 

 ^ inch long. Plant green, glabrous, shining, succulent, turning 

 blackish in drying. 



The pink-flowered form scarcely deserves to be considered a 

 variety, the additional character which is given of it, viz. that the 

 pedicels are shorter than the bracts, occurs frequently in the 

 common blue-flowered form. 



Brooldime. 



French, Veronique Aquatique. German, Bachhunge. 



The specific name of this plant seems to be derived from the German name Bach- 

 hunge, signifying a brook, and recalling the old provincial word hech for the same thing. 

 Dr. Prior tells us that the name Brooklime is in old writers Broklenipe or Lympe, from 

 its growing in the lime or mud of brooks, the Anglo-Saxon word lime coming from 

 the Latin lirmcs, a word that, from mud having been used in the rude buildings of 

 Anglo-Saxon times, has come to be applied to the calcareous stone of which mortar is 

 made at the present day, and indicates the reason why few or no buildings of that 

 period have been preserved, while so many much older Roman ones have withstood 

 dilapidation ; viz. that the lime used was merely mud. 



The leaves and young stems of the Brooklime were once in favour as an anti- 

 scorbutic, and even now the young shoots are sometimes eaten as watercresses, the two 

 plants being generally found growing together. They are jjcrfectly wholesome, and 

 might be more frequently employed but for px'ejudice. In olden times the leaves were 

 applied to wounds, and are now sometimes bruised and put on burns. The juice, with 

 that of scurvy-grass and Seville oranges, formed the " spring juices " once valued as an 

 antiscorbutic. 



Tribe VIII.— EUPHRASIES. 



Corolla tubular, bilabiate ; the upper lip erect or arched, 

 covered by the under lobes in bud. Stamens 4, didynamous ; 

 anther-lobes usually mucronate. Inflorescence simple, indefinite. 

 Leaves generally opposite or verticillate, very rarely alternate. 

 Plants generally (always ?) parasitical in the early stage of their 

 growth. 



GJENUS X— E UPHRASIA, Toumef. 



Calyx tubular or sharply bellshaped, not inflated, 4-cleft, 

 rarely with a minute fifth tooth. Corolla tubular and bilabiate ; 

 the upper lip broad, concave, bilobed, with the lobes conspicuous, 

 broad, and usually spreading; lower lip 3-cleft, with the lobes 

 spreading, obtuse or (more often) emarginate ; palate not plicate. 

 Stamens 4, sub-didynamous or didynamous, placed under the upper 

 lip of the corolla, included or exserted ; anthers 2-celled, with the 



