104 WATSIDJB WBEDS. 



is sufficient to distingnisli the primula family from 

 any other family of Britisli plants. 



Consider it well, for it is a good lesson;, the 

 family is exceedingly distinct, and the characters 

 given can be easily made out, even by a beginner. 

 How the members of the primula family — the pim- 

 pernels, the loosestrifes, and the primroses them- 

 selves — are distinguished from each other, we must 

 leave to our lesson on classification. 



Our blue veronica, or speedwell (Fig. 63), itself 

 a .pretty little plant, has many relatives with more 

 strongly-marked properties — among them the fox- 

 glove ; moreover, most of its tribe have irregular 

 corollas. You may at first have thought the veronica 

 a regular flower, but a moment's inspection will 

 show you it is not, and that the divisions of the 

 corolla are far from being equal. Indeed, the 

 irregular blossoms of the figwort tribe, which in- 

 cludes our veronica, closely resemble those of our 

 next tribe', the labiate plants, to which the dead- 

 nettles, the mint, and the thyme, all of which you 

 have in your Handful, belong. 



The figworts and the labiates have, as yon see, 

 both of them irregular, two-Hpped flowers ; in other 

 respects they are very different. Take one of your 

 dead-nettles (Fig. 58), and examine it. First, 

 there is a square stem; then there are opposite 

 leaves, which hold clusters or verticilli of blossoms 

 in their axils ; the calyx has an upper and lower 



