WALL SPEEDWELL 171 



The stamens and pistil mature at the same time. The corolla- 

 tube is spurred. There are four fertile stamens, one absent or 

 abortive. The anthers are oblong. The stigma is notched. The 

 flowers are often cleistogamic. It is visited only by bees. The 

 palate nearly closes the throat and does not project. The nectary 

 is purple and as long as the calyx. When in flower it pushes itself out 

 into the light and sun, but when the seeds are mature it buries the 

 capsules in the cracks between stones on which it grows, so that the 

 seed is dispersed by an automatic psychic motion of the plant itself. 



Ivy-leaved Toad Flax is a rock plant growing usually on an arti- 

 ficial rock soil or wall, being a modern introduction, not native. 



Linaria, Tournefort, is from the flax-like foliage, Limim. The 

 application of toad arose from the name bubonium being changed 

 to bufonium. Cymbalaria, Mathiolus, is from the Latin cymbalum, 

 cymbal. 



This graceful plant is called Aaron's Beard, Climbing Sailor, 

 Creeping Jenny, Ivy-wort, Mother of Millions, Mother of Thousands, 

 Oxford Weed, Pedlar's Basket, Penny Wort, Rabbits, Rambling 

 Sailor, Roving Jenny or Roving Sailor, Thousand Flower, Wander- 

 ing Jew, Wandering Sailor. Parkinson's reason for calling it Ivy wort 

 is stated thus: "We may call it in English either Iviewort or the 

 Ivie-like leaf as it is in the title ". 



It is eaten as a salad, being acrid or pungent like Cress, and it was 

 endowed with antiscorbutic properties. It is a common garden flower 

 planted on rockeries, &c. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



227. Linaria Cymbalaria, Mill.- Stem long, trailing, purplish, 

 leaves cordate, lobed, glabrous, flowers blue, axillary, on long pe- 

 duncles. 



Wall Speedwell (Veronica arvensis, L.) 



A Southern plant, Wall Speedwell is found in the N. Temperate 

 Zone in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, Himalayas, and has been 

 introduced into America. It is unknown in early deposits. This 

 plant is found in all parts of Great Britain as far north as the Shet- 

 lands, and ascends to nearly 2000 ft. in Yorks. It is found in Ireland 

 and the Channel Islands. 



W r all Speedwell is an arenophilous plant, which grows on wall-tops, 

 at the sides of paths, on sandy, open ground, as at the seaside, on 

 gravel drives, and other dry habitats, being xerophilous. With it 



