tU)H SPEEDWELL. 



drical, firm, very downy, procumbent, rooting, ascending, 

 usually branched from the base, and from five to ten inches 

 in length. The leaves are opposite, on very short petioles, 

 broadly ovate, narrowed at the base, sometimes nearly round, 

 serrated, or toothed at the margin, rough with pubescence. 

 The flowers are small, disposed in erect axillary and terminal 

 racemes ; each flower supported on a short peduncle with a 

 linear bractea at the base. The calyx has four ovate-lanceolate, 

 obtuse, hairy segments. The corolla is rotate, pale purple, 

 marked with deeper lines, of four deep, ovate, obtuse un- 

 equal segments, the lowermost smaller than the rest. The two 

 stamens are erect, inserted into the tube, and a little longer than 

 the corolla, with subulate filaments and cordate obtuse anthers. 

 The germen is ovate, obtuse, compressed, pubescent, furrowed, 

 glandular at the base, supporting a subulate, erect, purplish style 

 as long as the stamens, terminated by a truncate stigma. The 

 fruit is an obovate, compressed capsule, deeply notched at the 

 summit, somewhat pubescent and ciliated, two-celled, two- 

 valved, containing several small, brownish seeds. Plate 41, fig. 

 4, (a) entire flower ; (b) calyx and pistil ; (c) capsule ; (d) 

 transverse section of the same ; (e) seed magnified. 



This plant grows in woods, on dry barren pastures, commons 

 and hedge-banks, flowering in June and July. It often forms 

 small patches in dry open places in woods, and the simple sub- 

 dued brilliancy of its flowers, has a pleasing effect. 



Common Speedwell appears to have been unknown to the 

 earliest writers on plants, at least it is not described by them. 

 Its English synonymes are Male Speedwell, and Fluellin ; it has 

 also been called Paul's Betony, because Dodoneus and others 

 supposed it to be the Betonica of Paulus ^Egineta. 



General Uses. — Common Speedwell has been recommended 

 as a substitute for foreign tea, to which it is certainly inferior in 

 flavour, but it may be usefully combined with other plants of 

 an aromatic kind, such as Lavender, Balm, Marjoram, or Wood- 

 ruff The eulogies of Hoffmann have caused it to be employed 

 to some extent for this purpose, in Germany ; and according to 

 Linnaeus it is used by the Swedish peasantry. The leaves of 

 Germander Speedwell (Veronica Chamcedrys) are, however, 

 equal if not superior. In decoction with iron filings, the leaves 

 yield a black dye, which may be used for staining leather, &c. 



