Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



known as racemes, where the older flowers are at 

 the base, the youngest at the tip, and these spikes are 

 always longer than the leaves. In Travers's Veronica they 

 are short thick pyramids of white or purplish-white little 

 flowers ; the shade varies in depth. In the Box-leaved 

 Veronica, too, they are short, with the white flowers even 

 more densely clustered. On the Willow-leaved Veronica 

 they are long and pointed ; they hang in pairs entranc- 

 ing blue-white " tails " drooping five or six inches in 

 length all ovfer the plant, and each composed of anything 

 between one and two hundred small flowers massed to- 

 gether, while double that number of stamens project their 

 dark heads and soften the contour of the whole. 



As the type of flower is one with that of all other 

 Veronicas, herbs or shrubs with that, for instance, of the 

 little blue Speedwell which haunts our countryside in 

 spring a description of this Willow-leaved Veronicas 

 flower will serve for all ; the differences are only incidental 

 and minor. There are four sepals, narrow and pointed ; 

 four petals whose bases are joined to form the shortest 

 of tubes, but whose upper parts form four lobes ; the top 

 lobe is largest, because, in some far distant era, two upper 

 petals of an original five united to form it. On the top 

 of the petal tube are set two dark-headed stamens which 

 stretch out on either side like horns, and form an alight- 

 ing platform for insect visitors. The inside of the white 



petal tube is fringed with hairs, protectors against 



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