10 VERONICA. [ctASS II, ORDER 1. 



English Botany, t. 765.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 22.— Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 188.— Hooker, British Flora, p. 6. 



/3. Nearly smooth, English Flora, vol. i. p. 22. V. AUionii, D. Don, 

 MSS. Hooker's Flora Scoticae, vol. i. p. 7. 



Stem three to twelve inches long, creeping, taking root from the 

 axils of the leaves, branched at the base. Leaves obtuse or pointed, 

 more or less serrated, petioles short. Racemes long, flower-stalks 

 erect, shorter than their bracteas. Corolla light blue, with dark veins. 

 Capsule obcordate, deeply notched, or entire. St7/le longer than the 

 capsule, its stigma capitate. Seed pale, smooth. Whole plant more 

 or less rough, with spreading hairs, which are apparently jointed, and 

 are a beautiful example, when examined with a microscope, of the 

 delicate transparent cellular structure of hairs. An exceedingly vari- 

 able plant, sometimes very small, and thickly covered with close hair, 

 leaves ovate, lanceolate, or rotundate, nearly entire or deeply serrated ; 

 at other times it is long and spreading, leaves broadly ovate, tapering 

 into a footstalk, approaching spatulate, and much less downy. 



The V. officinalis is sometimes found with flesh-coloured flowers ; 

 several plants of this description we have seen on the moors about five 

 miles west of Sheffield, growing contiguous to and forming a pleasing- 

 contrast to the usual appearance of this species, from which, however, it 

 diff'ers in no material point, except in the colour of the flower, an occur- 

 rence by no means rare to plants even in a state of nature ; it is never- 

 theless one of the most singularly interesting changes of which plants 

 are susceptible, and probably one of those over which human ingenuity 

 possesses comparatively no control. Instances may indeed be men- 

 tioned — Hydrangea hortensis for example — when plants, by peculiar 

 treatment, are sometimes made to change the colour of their flowers 

 from white to blue ; but even this transitory result cannot always be 

 eff"ected with certainty. Seedling plants of Pinks, Carnations, Picotees, 

 &c., but more especially Tulips, often defeat for years the diligent 

 attention of the most skilful florist, until some cause, which by mere 

 cultivation he can neither hasten nor retard, interposes, and causes his 

 flowers to break, as it is technically termed, from the dingy self colour 

 into perhaps a brilliant scarlet, purple, or yellow. Those floral changes 

 of colour which aff'ect plants in a state of nature, are mostly from blue 

 to white, from red to blue, and from red to white — seldom from white 

 to red or blue ; whence it will appear that these changes tend to a loss 

 rather than an accession of colour. 



Habitat. — Woods, banks, heaths, and pastures; common. ^. On 

 mountains in Scotland and Ireland. 

 Perennial ; flowering from May to August. 



The student in Botany may find the varieties of this species some- 

 what perplexing, but with attention to the above characters, mistakes 

 as to the identity of the species will not arise. We have frequently 

 had specimens sent by individuals, with a doubt as to whether the ra- 



