78 CHICKWEED. 



one of the sources of Ipecac. Our native V. ovata is a reputed remedy 

 for the bite of the Rattlesnake. The common Sweet Violet of the con- 

 servatories (V. odorcita), the Ion of the Greeks, is famed for its fra- 

 grance. Its root is purgative, and employed in making the Syrup of 

 Violets. The blue infusion of its flowers is employed by the French 

 in numerous confections, and it also furnishes a chemical test, turning 

 green with an alkali an:l red with an acid. 



Scientific Terms. — Adnate anther. Cleistogene flower. Cordate. 

 Crenate. Cucullate. Irregular flower. Innate anther. Lyrate. Ly- 

 rate-pinnatifid. Reniform. Regular. Spar. Stipules. Auriculate. 



XVII. CHICKWEED. 



History. — We have before iis a plants humble in appear- 

 ance, but of noble lineage and truly cosmopolitan. It is a 

 common weed everywhere north of Mexico, and is abundant 

 in Europe, whence it is supposed to have emigrated hither. 

 It delights in cool, shady places on cultivated ground, and 

 blossoms from the beginning of Spring to the end of 

 Autumn. 



Analysis. — The Leaf Regioi^. — The root is annual 

 and fibrous. The stem is slender and weak, and therefore 

 prostrate or but half erect, nearly 1 foot long, with distinct 

 nodes (joints), and terete internodes (p. 85), which are singu- 

 larly distinguished by a hairy line which changes sides at 

 each joint. Its branches are like forks — diclwtomous. The 

 leaves are ovate, smooth, entire, two at each node and oppo- 

 site, 1' in length, mostly petiolate.* 



The I?iJlo7"escence proceeds in the following order : 

 1st, the stem early terminates in a flower ; 2d, a pair of 

 branches arises from the axils of the upper pair of leaves 



* It is curious to note how, as the chill of night comes on, the leaves fold together 

 in pairs, enclosing the tender germ of the young shoot at the axil ; while the upper 

 pair but one is larger than the others and covers over the last pair, so securing the 

 end of the branch. 



