408 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



G. virginiana, Linn. Stems branching, or creeping at base, more or 

 less viscid, 4-6 in. tall: leaves oblong or lanceolate, few-toothed, sessile: 

 flowers with yellowish corolla, J£— J^ in. long: sterile filaments not present. 

 Wet places. All summer. 



12. VER6NICA. Speedwell. 



Ours herbs with leaves mostly opposite or whorled, blue or white flowers 

 solitary or in racemes from the leaf-axils, or terminal; corolla wheel-shaped, 

 the border irregularly 4-lobed; stamens 2, inserted on corolla-tube, with 

 slender long filaments: ovary 2-celled, style slender: capsule flattened, 

 notched at apex, 2-celled, few- to numerous-seeded. 



V. americana, Schw. Perennial, weak and decumbent at base, rooting 

 at nodes, finally erect: leaves opposite at base, mostly petioled, thickish. 

 oblong to lance-ovate, serrate racemes axillary, opposite, 2-3 in. long: flowers 

 small, pale blue, on slender pedicels: capsule swollen, many-seeded. Com- 

 mon in and about brooks and swampy ground. June through summer. 



V. officinalis, Linn. Little pubescent prostrate perennial, 6 in. to 1 ft., 

 in dry fields and woods: leaves wedge-oblong, or obovate, short-petioled, 

 serrate: racemes spike-like, longer than leaves; flowers pale blue. July. 



V. peregrina, Linn. Annual, glabrous, erect, 4-9 in., branched: lower 

 leaves thick, oval, toothed, petioled; others sessile, entire: flowers very small, 

 whitish, axillary and solitary: capsule orbicular, slightly notched. A common 

 weed. April to June. 



V. serpyllifolia, Linn. Perennial, creeping; leaves small, rounded, 

 almost entire: flowering stems smooth, simple, ascending 2-6 in.; flowers 

 very small, in terminal racemes; corolla pale blue or whitish with purple 

 stripes, exceeding calyx. Common in lawns and grassy fields. May, through 

 summer. 



XXXVI. SOLANACE^. Nightshade Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, with alternate often compound leaves: flowers 

 perfect and regular, 5-merous, mostly rotate or open-bell -shaped 

 in form and plaited in the bud; stamens 5, often connivent around 

 the single 2-loculed pistil, borne on the corolla: fruit a berry or cap- 

 sule (the latter sometimes 4-loculed by a false partition), the seeds 

 borne on a central column. Some 70 genera and 1,500 species. Com- 

 mon representatives are nightshade, potato, tomato, husk tomato, 

 tobacco, jimson-weed, petunia. 



a. Fruit a fleshy berry. 



b. Fruiting calyx bladdery-inflated and wholly inclosing 

 the fruit; anthers not connected, opening length- 

 wise I. Physalis 



BB. Fruiting calyx not inflated. 



