BOG SPEEDWELL 31 



length. No doubt the flower is rendered more conspicuous by the 

 bearded surface of the corolla. The stamens, with purple anthers, are 

 inserted on the tube, and the style is very slender, the stigma 2-lobed. 

 The tube is somewhat funnel-shaped or bell-shaped, and accessible to 

 most insects. The bearded filaments serve to keep out flies and pro- 

 tect the honey from the rain. The papillse of the stigma in the long- 

 and the short-styled forms differ. So does the pollen, as in the 

 Primrose. Few insects visit the flowers, as they grow in rather 

 secluded spots, and are hidden under herbage, &c. 



The capsule contains many seeds, dispersing them on opening 

 partly by aid of the wind. 



Bog Bean is a peat-loving species, growing on peat soil or watery 

 wastes overlying clay. 



The leaves are attacked by a fungus, Protomyces menyanthii. Two 

 moths, Spilosoma urticce, the Light Knot Grass (Acronycta menyan- 

 thidis\ adopt the Buckbean as their food plant. 



Menyanthes, Dioscorides, is from the Greek men, month, anthos, 

 flower; and the second Latin name refers to the trifoliate leaves. 

 Buckbean is from buckerbeane, Dutch bocks boonen. It is called Bean 

 Trefoil, Beckbean, Bogbean, Bog Hop, Bog-nut, Brookbean, Buck- 

 bean, Marsh Claver, Marsh Cleever, Marsh Clover, Doudlar, Three- 

 fold, Bog, Marsh or Water Trefoil. It is called Bog Trefoil because 

 of its clover-like leaves, and Bog Hop because of its well-known bitter 

 properties and place of growth. 



Bog Bean was said to be a tonic and febrifuge, or cure for fever. It 

 has been used in place of Hops, and was formerly used for dropsy and 

 rheumatism, whence its rarity in some districts. In Lapland they eat 

 the powdered roots. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



212. Menyanthes trifoliata, L. Stem ascending, terete, leaves tri- 

 lobed, leaflets obovate, flowers pink, fringed. 



Bog Speedwell (Veronica scutellata, L.) 



Though an Arctic plant no seeds of this common bog plant have as 

 yet been discovered in peat or other deposits yielding such remains. 

 It is found in Arctic Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, N. America 

 in the Arctic and N. Temperate Zones. It occurs in every part of 

 Great Britain except Merioneth, Linlithgow, northward to the Shet- 

 land Isles. In Yorks it is found at the height of 2200 ft. It is found 

 in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



