290 SCROPHTJLARIACE^E. (FIGWORT FAMILY.) 



herbs, with the leaves mostly opposite or whorled ; the flowers blue, flesh-eolor, 

 or white. (Name of doubtful derivation; perhaps the flower of St. Veronica.) 



<j 1. Tall perennials, with mostly whorled leaves: racemes terminal, dense, spiked: 

 bracts very small: tube of the corolla longer than its limb and much longer than the 

 calyx. (Leptandra, Nutt.) 



1. V. Virgisaiea, L. (Culver's-root. Culver's Physic.) Smooth 

 or rather downy; stem simple, straight (2° -6° high) ; leaves whorled in fours 

 to sevens, short-petioled, lanceolate, pointed, finely serrate; spikes panicled; 

 stamens much exserted. — Rich woods, Vermont to Wisconsin, and southward: 

 often cultivated. July. — Corolla small, nearly white. Pod oblong-ovate, not 

 notched, opening by 4 teetli at the apex, many-seeded. 



(j 2. Perennials with opposite usually serrate leaves : flowers in axillary opposite ra- 

 cemes: corolla wheel-shaped {pair blue) : pod rounded, notched, rather many-seedi <l . 



2. V. Anags'eBliS, L. (Water Speedwell.) Smooth, creeping and 

 rooting at the base, then erect ; leaves sessile, most of them clasping by a heart-shaped 

 base, ovate-lanceolate, acnte, serrate or entire (2'-3 long); pedicels spreading; 

 poil slightly notched. — Brooks and ditches, especially northward; not so com- 

 mon as the next. June - Aug'. — Corolla pale blue with purple stripes. (Eu.) 



3. V. Americana, Schwemitz. (American Brooklime.) Smooth, 

 decumbent at the base, then erect (8'- 15' high) ; leaves mostly petioled, ovate or 

 oblong, acutish, serrate, thickish, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at the base; 

 the slender pedicels spreading; pod turgid. (V. Beccabunga, Amer. authors.) 



Brooks and ditches ; common northward. June -Aug. — Flowers as in the 



last ; the leaves shorter and broader. 



§3. Perennials, with diffuse or ascending branches from a decumbent base: leaves 

 opposite: racemes axillary, from alternate axils: corolla wheel-shaped: pod strongly 

 flattened, several-set «• 1 1. 



4. V. sciiteHista, L. (Marsh Speedavell.) Smooth, slender and 

 weak (6'- 12' high) ; !,<ircs sessile, linear, acute, remotely denticulatt ; racemes 1 or 

 2, very slender and zigzag ; flowers few and scattered, on elongated spreading or 

 reflcxed pedicels ; pod very flat, much broader than long, notched at both ends. 

 — Bogs ; common northward. June -Aug. (Eu.) 



5. V. ofaciaials.S, L. (Common Speedwell.) Pubescent; stem pros- 

 trate rooting at the base ; leaves short-petioled, obovate-elliptical or wedge-oblong, o>- 

 tuse, serrate; racemes densely many-flowered; pedicels shorter than the calyx; pod 

 obovate-triangular, broadly notched. — Dry hills and open woods; certainly in- 

 digenous in many places, especially in the Allcghanies. July. (Eu.) 



$4. Leaves opposite : flowers in a terminal raceme, the lou-er bracts resembling the 



stem-leaves: corolla wheel-shaped: pods flat, several-seeded. 



* Perennials (mostly turning blackish in drying). 



6. V. alpina, L. (Alpine Speedwell.) Stem branched from the 

 base, erect, simple (2' -6' high) ; leaves elliptical, or the lowest rounded, entire 

 or toothed, nearly sessile; raceme hairy, few-flowered, crowded; pod obovate, 

 notched. — Alpine summits of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. (Eu.) 



