VERONICA. 209 



9. And for a farther specialty, I think we should take note 

 of the purity and simplicity of its floral blue, not sprinkling 

 itself with unwholesome sugar like a larkspur, nor varying 

 into coppery or turquoise-like hue as the forget-me-not ; but 

 keeping itself as modest as a blue print, pale, in the most 

 frequent kinds ; but pure exceedingly ; and rejoicing in fel- 

 lowship with the grey of its native rocks. The palest of all I 

 think it will be well to remember as Veronica Clara, the 

 " Poor Clare " of Veronicas. I find this note on it in my 

 diary, 



' The flower of an exquisite grey- white, like lichen, or shaded 

 hoar-frost, or dead silver ; making the long-weathered stones 

 it grew upon perfect with a finished modesty of paleness, as 

 if the flower could be blue, and would not, for their sake. 

 Laying its fine small leaves along in embroidery, like Anagal- 

 lis tenella, indescribable in the tender feebleness of it after- 

 wards as it grew, dropping the little blossoms from the base 

 of the spire, before the buds at the top had blown. Gath- 

 ered, it was happy beside me, with a little water under a 

 stone, and put out one pale blossom after another, day by 

 day.' 



10. Lastly, and for a high worthiness, in my estimate, note 

 that it is wild, of the wildest, and proud in pure descent of 

 race ; submitting itself to no follies of the cur-breeding florist. 

 Its species, though many resembling each other, are severally 

 constant in aspect, and easily recognizable ; and I have never 

 seen it provoked to glare into any gigantic impudence at a 

 flower show. Fortunately, perhaps, it is scentless, and so de- 

 spised. 



11. Before I attempt arranging its families, we must note 

 that while the corolla itself is one of the most constant in 

 form, and so distinct from all other blossoms that it may be 

 always known at a glance ; the leaves and habit of growth vary 

 so greatly in families of different climates, and those born for 

 special situations, moist or dry, and the like, that it is quite 

 impossible to characterize Veronic, or Veronique, vegetation 

 in general terms. One can say, comfortably, of a strawberry, 

 that it is a creeper, without expecting at the next moment to 



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