244 BLUE TO PURPLE 



P . confertus var. ccErnlco-purpurens , or Blue Beard-tongue, 

 is very like P . cofifertns, or Yellow Beard-tongue, described 

 in the Yellow to Orange Section. 



Its flowers are bright blue or violet, and are usually set in 

 two dense circles round the stem, though there is also a low- 

 growing form of this species found in the mountains which 

 has blue flowers growing in a simple terminal cluster. 



ALPINE SPEEDWELL 



Veronica alpina. Figwort Family 



Stems: erect, slender, usually simple. Leaves: oblong, ovate, sessile, 

 mostly rounded at both ends, nearly entire. Flowers : in a short narrow 

 raceme ; corolla rotate, its tube very short, deeply four-lobed, the lower 

 lobe the narrowest. 



These small azure-blue blossoms win the love of many a 

 traveller by reason of the fact that they are among the last 

 flowers he sees growing in the crevices of the great moraines 

 that fringe the glaciers, and are frequently the first ones 

 to meet his eyes as he comes off the snowy ice-fields after 

 making some arduous ascent. 



"The little speedwell's darling blue" 



renders it conspicuous, though its flowers are very small 

 indeed, being clustered together at the tops of the stems. 

 One marked peculiarity of the Speedwells is that the blossoms, 

 which are cleft into four lobes, usually have the lower segment 

 narrower than the rest. The Dutch call this plant " Honour 

 and Praise," because it was once upon a time believed to 

 contain valuable medicinal properties. Many claimed it to be 

 an excellent remedy for scrofula, and it was the great Lin- 

 naeus himself who grouped it, together with all its relatives, 

 under the family name of Scrophuiariaccce, or Figwort. 



The term Veronica suggests far more beautiful associations. 

 Here the plant is named after Saint Veronica, who in her 



