HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Marsh Speedwell 



V. scutellaia. — Color, pale blue. Leaves, long, narrow, sessile, 

 acute. Flowers, on slender pedicels, in racemes, single or in 

 pairs, the panicles often bent in a zigzag fashion. 6 to 12 inches 

 high. May to August. 



Swamps and wet grounds, roadsides, and along brooks, 

 New England to New York and westward. 



Common Speedwell 



V. officinalis Color, blue. Flowers, in axillary, opposite 



racemes, very small, much crowded, with short pedicels. Leaves, 

 with short petioles, opposite, oblong, serrate. Plant, softly hairy. 

 Stem, weak, prostrate, creeping. May to August. 



Dry, open woods and hills, New England southward and 

 westward. 



Thyme-leaved Speedwell 



V, serpyllifolia. — Color, whitish or light blue, with dark blue 

 lines. Flowers, in loose racemes, with pedicels. Leaves, the lower 

 petioled, roundish, passing gradually into narrow bracts near 

 the flowers. Small, often dooryard weeds, growing flat and mat- 

 like upon the ground, with the opposite flowering branches 3 or 

 4 inches long. Stem, creeping, smooth. May to July. 



Lawns and grassy places in all our Eastern States. 



Chaff-seed 



Schvualbea americana — Family, Figwort. Color, dull, yellowish 

 purple. Calyx, tubular, 5-toothed, with a pair of bracts at its 

 base. Corolla, 2-lipped, the upper lip entire, the lower 3-lobed, 

 2-plaited. Flowers, large, irregular, nearly or quite sessile, form- 

 ing a terminal, loose spike. Stem, straight, slender, 1 to 2 feet 

 high with few branches, glandular, and softly hairy. Leaves, en- 

 tire, oblong to ovate, pointed at both ends, sessile, passing into 

 linear bracts above. May to July. 



In wet, sandy soil, near the coast, from Massachusetts to 

 Louisiana. 



Purple Bladderwort 



Viricularia purpurea. — Family, Figwort. Color, violet purple. 

 Flower, of the Figwort type, 2-lipped, the lower lip 3-lobed. Of 

 these the two side lobes are swollen and sac-like. Flowers, 1 to 4 

 on a leafless scape which rises out of shallow water from 1 to 6 

 inches high. Branches float on the surface, with petioled leaves 

 cut into hair-like divisions, furnished with many bladders. May 

 to August. 



In ponds and streams, near the coast, from Maine to Florida. 



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