BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 
foot-sore traveler has been cheered and encouraged 
as he trudged the by-paths of country highways, 
by these little bright blue blossoms, or as Tennyson 
says, “the little Speedwell’s darling blue.” There 
is an ancient tradition regarding this flower that 
is connected with our Lord. When bearing His 
cross to Calvary, He happened to pass the door 
of Veronica, a Jewish maiden, who, seeing the drops 
of agony on His brow, wiped His face with a linen 
cloth. The sacred features remained impressed upon 
the linen, and owing to the fancied resemblance of 
the Speedwell’s blossom to the markings on this hal- 
lowed piece of fabric, the plant was named Veronica, 
This relic is known as the kerchief of St. Veronica, 
and still reposes, it is said, in St. Peter’s Cathedral 
in Rome. Small wonder, then, that this plant was 
believed to possess miraculous virtues for curing 
various bodily ailments. Even now it is used as a tonic 
and cough medicine, and also for healing wounds. 
The Common Speedwell is found in blossom from 
May to August along roadsides and in dry fields, uplands 
and open woods, from North Carolina and Tennessee to 
Michigan and Canada. | It is a low-growing perennial, 
increasing by creeping roots or stolens and extending 
its slender, hairy, branching and leafy stalk, from three 
to ten inches in length. It usually sprawls along the 
ground, often rooting again and again at the leaf joints. 
The downy, oblong, saw-edged, evergreen leaf is broad 
and rounding at the apex, and is narrowed at the base 
into a short stem. They are set upon the stalk in oppo- 
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