VERONICA. 217 



water-plants, with strong stems and thick leaves. The present 

 name of my Veronica Stagnarum is however V. anagallis, a 

 mere insult to the little water primula, which one plant of the 

 Veronica would make fifty of. This is a rank water-weed, 

 having confused bunches of blossom and seed, like unripe 

 currents, dangling from the leaf-axils. So that where the 

 little triphylla, (No. 7, above,) has only one blossom, daintily 

 set, and well seen, this has a litter of twenty-five or thirty on 

 a long stalk, of which only three or four are well out as flow- 

 ers, and the rest are mere knobs of bud or seed. The stalk 

 is thick (half an inch round at the bottom), the leaves long 

 and misshapen. "Frequens in fossis," D. 203. French, 

 Mouron d'Eau, but I don't know the root or exact meaning 

 of Mouron. 



An ugly Australian species, 'labiata,' C. 1660, has leaves 

 two inches long, of the shape of an aloe's, and partly aloeine 

 in texture, " sawed with unequal, fleshy, pointed teeth." 



1 8. Fontium. Brook- Veronica. Brook- Lime, the Anglo- 

 Saxon ' lime ' from Latin limus, meaning the soft mud of 

 streams. German ' Bach-bun ge ' (Brook-purse ?) ridiculously 

 changed by the botanists into * Beccabunga,' for a Latin name ! 

 Very beautiful in its crowded green leaves as a stream-com- 

 panion ; rich and bright more than watercress. See notice of 

 it at Matlock, in * Modern Painters,' vol. v. 



1 9. Clara. Veronique des rochers. Saxatilis, I suppose, 

 in Sowerby, but am not sure of having identified that with 

 my own favourite, for which I therefore keep the name ' Clara/ 

 (see above 9) ; and the other rock variety, if indeed another, 

 must be remembered, together with it. 



2O. Glauca. G. 7. And this at all events, with the Clara, 

 is to be remembered as closing the series of twenty families, 

 acknowledged by Proserpina. It is a beautiful low-growing 

 ivy-leaved type, with flowers of subdued lilac blue. On 

 Mount Hymettus : no other locality given in the Flora Graeca. 



15. I am sorry, and shall always be so, when the varieties 

 of any flower which I have to commend to the student's mem- 

 ory, exceed ten or twelve in number ; but I am content to 

 gratify his pride with lengthier task, if indeed he will resign 



