BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 



foot-sore traveler has been cheered and encouraged 

 as he trudged the by-paths of country highways, 

 by these little bright blue blossoms, or as Tennyson 

 says, "the little Speedwell's darling blue." There 

 is an ancient tradition regarding this flower that 

 is connected with our Lord. When bearing His 

 cross to Calvary, He happened to pass the door 

 of Veronica, a Jewish maiden, who, seeing the drops 

 of agony on His brow, wiped His face with a linen 

 cloth. The sacred features remained impressed upon 

 the linen, and owing to the fancied resemblance of 

 the Speedwell's blossom to the markings on this hal- 

 lowed piece of fabric, the plant was named Veronica. 

 This relic is known as the kerchief of St. Veronica, 

 and still reposes, it is said, in St. Peter's Cathedral 

 in Rome. Small wonder, then, that this plant was 

 believed to possess miraculous virtues for curing 

 various bodily ailments. Even now it is used as a tonic 

 and cough medicine, and also for healing wounds. 

 The Common Speedwell is found in ^blossom from 

 May to August along roadsides and in dry fields, uplands 

 and open woods, from North Carolina and Tennessee to 

 Michigan and Canada. It is a low-growing perennial, 

 increasing by creeping roots or stolens and extending 

 its slender, hairy, branching and leafy stalk, from three 

 to ten inches in length. It usually sprawls along the 

 ground, often rooting again and again at the leaf joints. 

 The downy, oblong, saw-edged, evergreen leaf is broad 

 and rounding at the apex, and is narrowed at the base 

 into a short stem. They are set upon the stalk in oppo- 



