SOME LOWLY HERBS. 147 



When viewed under a hand lens many of the 

 minute flowers of our smaller herbs are most 

 handsome. For example, those of the Veronicas 

 or speedwells and certain of the mints, which 

 are purplish-white, are often very prettily 

 striped or dotted with purple. In the brook, 

 a few rods in front of my tent, there grows a 

 Veronica which was unknown to me until yes- 

 terday. Having just determined it I find it to 

 be the water speedwell, 53 the stems cylindrical, 

 thickened, fleshy; the leaves lanceolate, clasp- 

 ing; the petals four, the lowermost or smaller 

 whitish, the others striped with purple. It 

 grows to a height of eighteen inches and is said 

 to occur also in Europe and Asia. 



Another herb whose flowers are grouped in 

 dense heads and which has the lobes of the pet- 

 als prettily dotted with purple is a mint which 

 I have known as the hairy blephila, 54 though 

 Gray's description is not a good one, the two 

 stamens being as often included as exserted and 

 the plant spreading by sending out runners 

 whose leaves are more ovate than those of the 

 upright flowering stem. It is a common herb 

 on the lowland terraces of this old pasture and 

 both flowers and foliage give off a faint but 

 pleasing odor. 



I have come for the last time to the crest of 

 the Knobstone ridge to loll for awhile in my 



Veronica anagallis L. w Blephila hirsute Pursh. 



