THE GERMANDER SPEEDWELL. 83 



white blossoms the hyacinth, bugle, heath, herb-robert, 

 and many other plants afford an illustration of this fact in 

 plant colour. In some cases possibly insufficient nutriment 

 may have produced the effect, but ordinarily one notices no 

 circumstance that accounts satisfactorily for the deviation 

 from the ordinary colouring-. The stem is weak, and 

 the whole plant fragile, drooping very quickly when 

 gathered. The leaves are very shortly stalked, very deeply 

 furrowed by the veins, and deeply serrated. The in- 

 florescence is racemose in character, the flowering stems 

 springing from the axils of the leaves; the flowers are 

 very fugacious, hence it is a most unsatisfactory plant 

 to gather, as on arriving home with the treasure it will 

 ordinarily be found that something like nine-tenths of 

 the blossoms are either entirely missing, or are very 

 quickly lying scattered on the table on which the glass 

 containing the bunch has been placed. 



The names of plants, both those assigned by science 

 and those in daily use by the unlearned, will often repay 

 analysis, though some of our readers may have a feeling 

 that the subject cannot but be dull and uninteresting, and 

 will further feel justified in their opinion by the authority 

 of our great poet, whose lines, "What's in a name, that 

 which we call a rose By any other name would smell as 

 sweet," supply them with an apt quotation. Still, the 

 subject is not altogether devoid either of interest or 

 practical utility, for though some of the ' names of our 

 English plants cannot now bs satisfactorily analysed, there 

 remain many which, when their significance is under- 

 stood, may yield considerable information, some by their 

 associations recalling the festive customs of the so-called 

 " good old times ; " while, others again appeal to the 



