290 SCROPHULARIACE^E. (FIGWORT FAMILY.) 



herbs, with the leaves mostly opposite or whorled ; the flowers blue, flesh-color, 

 or white. (Name of doubtful derivation; perhaps the flower of St. Veronica.) 



1. Tall perennials, with mostly whorled leaves: racemes terminal, dense, spiked: 

 bracts very small : tube of the corolla longer than its limb and much longer than the 

 calyx. (Leptandra, Xittt.) 



1. V. Virgiiiica, L. (CULVER'S-ROOT. CULVER'S PHYSIC.) Smooth 

 or rather downy; stem simple, straight (2 -6 high) ; leaves whorled in fours 

 to sevens, short-pctioled, lanceolate, pointed, finely serrate ; spikes panicled ; 

 stamens much exserted. Rich woods, Vermont to Wisconsin, and southward: 

 often cultivated. July. Corolla small, nearly white. Pod oblong-ovate, not 

 notched, opening by 4 teeth at the apex, many-seeded. 



2. Perennials with opposite usually serrate haves : flowers in axillary opposite ra- 

 cemes : corolla wheel-shaped (pale blue) : pod rounded, notched, rather many-seeded 



2. V. Aiiagtfllis, L. (WATER SPEEDWELL.) Smooth, creeping and 

 rooting at the base, then erect ; leaves sessile, most of them clasping by a hmrt-s/urped 

 base, ovate-lanceolate, acute, serrate or entire (2' -3 long); pedicels spreading; 

 pod slightly notched. Brooks and ditches, especially northward; not so com- 

 mon as the next. June - Aug. Corolla pale blue with purple stripes. (Eu.) 



3. V Americana, Schweinitz. (AMERICAN BROOKLIME.) Smooth, 

 decumbent at the base, then erect ( 8' -15' high) ; leaves mostly petioled, ovate or 

 oblong, acutish, serrate, thickish, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at the base ; 

 the slender pedicels spreading; pod turgid. (V. Beccabunga, Amer. authors.) 



Brooks and ditches ; common northward. June - Aug. Flowers as in the 

 last ; the leaves shorter and broader. 



$ 3. Perennials, with diffuse or ascending branches from a decumbent base : leaves 

 opposite: racemes axillary, from alternate axils : corolla wheel-shaped: pod strongly 

 flattened, several-seeded. 



4. V. scutclliita, L. (MARSH SPEEDWELL.) Smooth, slender and 

 weak (6'- 12' high) ; leaves sessile, linear', acute, remotely denticulate. ; racemes 1 or 

 2, very slender and zigzag ; flowers few and scattered, on elongated spreading or 

 retlexed pedicels ; pod very flat, much broader than long, notched at both ends. 



Bogs; common northward. June -Aug. (Eu.) 



5. V. officiiialis, L. (COMMON SPEEDWELL.) Pubescent; stem pro*. 

 irate, rooting at the base ; leaves short-petioled, obovate-elliptical or wedge-oblong, ob- 

 {,<*', su-rati' ; rummx ih-nsely many-flowered ; pedicels shorter than the calyx ; pod 

 obovatc-triangular, broadly notched. Dry hills and open woods; certainly in- 

 digenous in many places, especially in the Alleghanies. July. (Eu.) 



$ 4. fjcaves opposite : flowers in a terminal raceme, the lower bracts resembling tie 



stem-leaves: corolla wheel-shaped: pods flat, several-seeded. 



# Perennials (mo&hj turning blackish in drying). 



6. V. alplna, L. (ALPINE SPEEDWELL.) Stem branched from tne 

 base, erect, simple (2' -6' high) ; lea res dliptintl, or the lowest rounded, entire 

 or toothed, nearly sessile ; ran nn' hairy, f<-ir-Jhrcml, rrmrdfd ; pod obovate, 

 notched. Alpine summits of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. (Eu.} 





