94 WAYSIDE WEEDS. 



(Fig. 68), sufficiently well-known to every youtH 

 who lias consigned Hs heart to the keeping of 

 some fair maid, and, for that matter, sufficiently 

 well known to the fair maids themselves. Next 

 have we the veronica, speedwell, or Venus's looking, 

 glass, of real heavenly blue. The mint family, with 

 the red and white dead-nettles, the wild thyme, and 

 the self-heal (Fig. 62) come next ; then our friends 

 the primrose and the cowslip, and, with them, the 

 iscarlet pimpernel, or poor man's weather-glass, 

 which closes its brilliant petals long before the com- 

 ing storm. Lastly, we have plantain for the bird- 

 fancier, and the pink-headed thrift of seaside wastes, 

 but perhaps more familiar as a bordering to old- 

 fashioned flower-beds. We have a rare Handful 

 ■this time, almost the best of our series, and were 

 we not afraid of increasing its dimensions beyond 

 our grasp, we might have graced it with more well- 

 known blossoms still, such as the conspicuously 

 handsome foxglove race ; but we have _ enough and 

 to spare for our lesson. 



It does not need much dissection of our blossoms 

 to tell us that we have all monopetalous corollas, and 

 indeed that bright blue veronica (Fig. 63) does not 

 wait for our dissecting, but insists on casting off its 

 coroUas all in a piece, with the two stamens adher- 

 ing. They are thoroughly deciduous corollas. The 

 rest of our flowers are not quite so precipitate in 

 their proceedings, but there is scarce one we have 



