114 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



Closely allied to the Labiates is the Verbenaceous family, 

 represented by the Common Vervain,* a weed plentiful by 

 roadsides and in waste places in the southern parts of Eng- 

 land. The blossoms bear no comparison with the handsome 

 Verbenas of our gardens, which belong to the same genus. 

 The plant is an erect-growing perennial, having stems one to 

 two feet high, with long spreading wiry branches. The leaves 

 are opposite, those on the lower part of the stem, where they 

 are most numerous, obovate or oblong, stalked, and coarsely 

 toothed or cut, the upper ones being few sessile and lance- 

 shaped. The flowers are small, in long slender spikes termi- 

 nating the stem and branches, crowded at first, but becoming 

 distant below by the elongation of the spike ; they consist of 

 a five-toothed calyx, a tubular corolla with an unequal five- 

 cleft spreading limb, four stamens included in the tube, and a 

 two- or four-celled ovary bearing the style at top, and dividing 

 into four one-seeded nuts. 



Another of these irregular-flowered perigynous Monopetals 

 is the Common Butterwort,f which belongs to the Lentibula- 

 riaceous family. It is a little herb, found not uncommonly 

 on wet rocks by mountain rills and in boggy places. It 

 forms a rosulate tuft of spreading flat ovate or broadly oblong 

 light green somewhat succulent leaves, which are involute at 

 the margin and covered with soft glandular points which give 

 them a clammy feel. The flower-stalks grow up among these 

 to the height of four or five inches, and each terminate in a 

 solitary bluish-purple flower. This consists of a two-lipped 

 .calyx, three -toothed in the upper lip and bifid in the lower ; 

 a two-lipped corolla spurred at the base, with a broad open 

 mouth, a short broad two-lobed upper lip, and a longer three- 



* Verbena oJicinalisPl&te 17 C. 

 t Pinguicula vulgaris Plate 18 B. 



