SCROPHULARIACEAE FIGWORT FAMILY 
CULVER’S ROOT 
Veronica virginica L. 
The Culver’s Root is closely related to the Speedwells, page 
310, which one would never suspect from its growth habits and 
general appearance. It grows in woods, meadows and other open 
places from Massachusetts to Ontario and Mani- 
toba, south to Alabama and Texas. It is a good 
honey plant and formerly the root was extensively 
used in medicine. 
This is a tall, stout, perennial herb, 2-7 feet high, 
with a stem that is smooth or very nearly so and 
unbranched except in the inflorescence. Sometimes 
the uppermost leaves are opposite but regularly 
all are in whorls of 
3-7. They are short 
petioled, finely tooth- 
ed, and may besmooth 
on both sides or some- 
what hairy below. 
Usually there are 
several very dense 
spikes of flowers 
blooming during July 
and August, the ter- 
minal spike develop- 
ing first. The calyx is 
4-parted and short. The white or sometimes bluish corolla is 
tubular, nearly regular and 4-lobed at the end. The tube is much 
longer than the lobes. Two long stamens are inserted low on the 
corolla tube and extend well out of the flower. The style is about 
as long as the stamens and the stigma is very small. The many- 
seeded capsule is oblong-ovate, not notched, 2-3 times as long 
as the calyx and opens by 4 teeth at the apex. 
The Thyme-leaved Speedwell, Veronica serpyllifolia L., is a low 
perennial herb with dainty blue and dark-striped flowers, common 
in fields and open woods. The long stems come from a fibrous root, 
extend over the ground and turn upward a few inches from the tip. 
The fruits are obcordate capsules, a little shorter than the hairy 
calyx and tipped with the long slender style. This plant is known 
in Asia, South America and Europe, and its recorded spread over this 
continent is from Labrador to Alaska and south to Georgia and Cali- 
fornia. It blooms from April to August. 
309 
