526 SCROPHULARIACE^ SYNTHYRIS 



VERONICA 



J5. rubra Benth. 1. c. 425. Lanate with soft white wool: herbage more 

 or less reddish-hued : leafy : radical leaves orbicular or ovate to oblong or 

 lanceolate, crenulate, narrowed, truncate or cordate at base, the blade 1-2 

 inches long, on petioles as long or longer; cauline ovate to lanceolate, 6-12 

 lines long, sessile or nearly so : pedicels only 1-2 lines long : calyx-lobes 

 ovate-lanceolate or oblong : corolla none : stamens inserted on the outside 

 of the hypogy nous disk:. capsule turgid, emarginate, slightly longer than 

 the calyx. On high open ridges, eastern Oregon to Brit. Columbia and 

 Nebraska. 



17 VERONICA L. Sp. 9. (1753.) 



Annual or perennial herbs (some ex otic species shrubs or trees) 

 with mostly opposite, rarely verticillate or alternate, leaves and 

 usually small blue, pink or white flowers in terminal or axillary 

 racemes or spikes, or rarely solitary. Calyx mostly 4-parted, 

 sometimes 5-parted, the segments oblong or ovate. Corolla rotate, 

 its tube very short, the limb deeply and more or less unequal- 

 ly 4-lobed, rarely 5-lobed, the lower lobe commonly smallest. 

 Stamens 2, divergent, inserted on either side at the base of the 

 upper lobe of the corolla: anthers obtuse, their cells confluent at 

 the apex. Ovary two-celled: style slender; stigma capitate: 

 ovules few or many in each cell. Capsule more or less compressed, 

 sometimes very flat, emarginate, obcordate or two-lobed, loculi- 

 cidally dehiscent.. Seeds smooth or rough, flat, plano-convex or 

 excavated on the inner face. 



* Perennial by stolons, or creeping base : racemes in the axils of 

 opposite leaves. 



V. Americana Schwein. Benth. in DC. Prodr. x, 468. , Glabrous 

 throughout: stems decumbent, usually branched, rooting at the lower 

 node's, 6-30 inches long : leaves oblong to ovate or broadly lanceolate, 1-3 

 inches long, sharply serrate, truncate, rounded or subcordate at base, all 

 distinctly petioled : racemes peduncled, loose, elongated, 2-6 inches long : 

 bractlets linear, 2-6 lines long: pedicels slender, 6 lines or more long: sep- 

 als oblong, about a line long : corolla blue or nearly white, usually striped 

 with purple, about 2 lines broad : capsule nearly orbicular, compressed but 

 not very flat, emarginate, lj^ lines high : seeds flat. Common in moist or 

 wet places, Alaska to California and across the Continent. 



V. scute II ata L. Sp. 12. Glabrous or very sparingly hairy: stems 

 slender, ascending from a stoloniferous base, 1-2 feet long": leaves sessile, 

 linear or linear- lanceolate, acute, remotely denticulate, 2-3 inches long: 

 flowers scattered on filiform elongated and widely spreading pedicels : 

 corolla blue or purple, 2-3 lines broad : capsule broader than high, v*ry 

 flat, deeply emarginate at the summit, slightly so at base : seeds flat. In 

 ponds and wet places, Brit. Columbia to California and across the Continent. 



* * Low perennials with ascending or erect flowering stems termin- 

 ated by a single raceme : cauline leaves above passing into bracts : seeds 

 numerous, much compressed or meniscoidal. 



V. Cusickii Gray Syn. Fl. ii. 288. Glabrous: stems 3-6 inches high, 

 erect, simple, from creeping rootstocks : leaves ovate to oblong, sessile or 

 nearly so, entire, 6-10 lines long, the pairs crowded up to the naked ped- 

 uncle of the 3-9-flowered raceme : pedicels slender, often as long as the 

 flower and longer than the oblong-linear bracts : sepals lanceolate, about 

 2 lines long : corolla blue or violet, 4-5 lines in diameter, with ample 



