III. VERONICA. G5 



flower form. I don't myself know one, except the Veron- 

 ica. The cruciform vegetables the heaths, the olives, 

 the lilacs, the little Tormentillas, and the poppies, are all 

 perfectly symmetrical. Two of the petals, indeed, as a 

 rule, are different from the other two, except in the 

 heaths ; and thus a distinctly crosslet form obtained, but 

 always an equally balanced one : while in the Yeronica, 

 as in the Violet, the blossom always refers itself to a 

 supposed place on the stalk with respect to the ground ; 

 and the upper petal is always the largest. 



The supposed place is often very suppositious indeed 

 for clusters of the common veronicas, if luxuriant, 

 throw their blossoms about anywhere. But the idea of 

 an upper and lower petal is always kept in the flower's 

 little mind. 



7. In the second place, it is a quite open and flat 

 quatrefoil so separating itself from the belled quadra- 

 ture of the heath, and the tubed and primrose-like quad- 

 rature of the cruciferse ; and, both as a quatrefoil, and as 

 an open one, it is separated from the foxgloves and snap- 

 dragons, which are neither quatref oils, nor open ; but are 

 cinqfoils shut up ! 



8. In the third place, open and flat though the flower 

 be, it is monopetalous ; all the four arms of the cross 

 strictly becoming one in the centre ; so that, though the 

 blue foils look no less sharply separate than those of a 

 buttercup or a cistus ; and are so delicate that one ex- 

 pects them to fall from their stalk if we breathe too 



