214: PROSERPINA. 



tional form in the plant : it may be accepted as only a mo 

 mentary compliment of mimicry to the geraniums. The 

 Siberian variety, ' multifida,' C. 1679, divides itself almost as 

 the submerged leaves of the water-ranunculus. 



The triphylla itself is widely diffused, growing alike on the 

 sandy fields of Kent, and of Troy. In D. 627 is given an ex- 

 tremely delicate and minute northern type, the flowers springing 

 as in Persica, one from each leaf-axil, and at distant intervals. 



8. Officinalis. D. 248, S. 294. Fr. ' Veronique officinale'; 

 (Germ. Gebrauchlicher Ehrenpreis,) our commonest English 

 and Welsh speedwell ; richest in cluster and frankest in road- 

 side growth, whether on bank or rock ; but assuredly liking 

 either a bank or a rock, and the top of a wall better than the 

 shelter cf one. Uncountable 'myriads,' I am tempted to 

 write, but, cautiously and literally, ' hundred ' of blossoms 

 if one could count, ranging certainly towards the thousand 

 in some groups, all bright at once, make our Westmoreland 

 lanes look as if they were decked for weddings, in early sum- 

 mer. In the Danish Flora it is drawn small and poor ; its 

 southern type being the true one : but it is difficult to explain 

 the difference between the look of a flower which really suffers, 

 as in this instance, by a colder climate, and becomes mean 

 and weak, as well as dwarfed ; and one which is braced and 

 brightened by the cold, though diminished, as if under the 

 charge and charm of an affectionate fairy, and becomes a joy- 

 fully patriotic inheritor of wilder scenes and skies. Medicinal, 

 to soul and body alike, this gracious and domestic flower ; 

 though astringent and bitter in the juice. It is the Welsh 

 deeply honoured ' Fluellen.' See final note on the myth of 

 Veronica, see 18. 



9. Thymifolia. Thyme-leaved, G. 6. Of course the lon- 

 gest possible word serpyllifolia is used in S. 978. It is a 

 high mountain plant, growing on the top of Crete as the snow 

 retires ; and the Veronica minor of Gerarde ; " the roote is 

 small and threddie, taking hold of the upper surface of the 

 earth, where it spreadeth." So also it is drawn as a creeper in 

 F. 492, where the flower appears to be oppressed and con- 

 cealed by the leafage. 



