290 SCEOPHULAKIACEJS. (fIGWOBT FAMILY.) 



herbs, with the leares mostly opposite or whorlcd ; tlte flowers blue, ficsh-color, 

 or white. (Name of doubtful derivation ; perhaps the flower of >S(. Veronica.) 



1 1. Tall perenniahf imth mostly whorled haves: racemes tennival, demise, spiked; 

 bracts very small : tube of the corolla longer than its limb and much longer tlian the 

 calyx. (Leptandra, Nutt.) 



1. v. Tirg'inica, L. (Culteh's-koot. Culver's Piitsic.) Smooth 

 or rather downy; stem simple, straight (2° -6° high) ; leaves whorlcd in foui-s 

 to sevens, short-petioled, lanceolate, pointed, finely seri'ato ; spikes panicled ; 

 stamens much exserted. — Rich woods, Vermont to Wisconsin, and soutliward : 

 often cultivated. July. — Corolla small, nearly white. Pod oblong-ovate, not 

 notched, opening by 4 teeth at the apex, many-seeded. 



§ 2. Perennials with opposite usually serrate leaves : flowers in axillary opfosiie ra- 

 cemes : corolla ivheel-shaped (pale blue) : pod rounded, notched, rather many-seeded. 



2. V. AnagdlliS, L. ("Watek Speedwell.) Smootli, creeping and 

 rooting at the base, then erect ; leaves sessile, most of them clasping by a heart-slmped 

 base, ovate-lanceolate, Sucute, serrBite or entire (2' -3 long); pedicels sprciding; 

 pod slightly notched. — Brooks and ditches, especially northward ; not so 'com- 

 mon as the next. June- Aug. — Corolla pale blue with puiple stripes. (Eu.) 



3. V. Americana, Sehweinitz. (American Brooklime.) Smooth, 

 decumbent at the base, then erect (8' -15' high) ; leaves mostly petioled, ovate or 

 oblong, acutish, sen'ate, thickish, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at the base ; 

 the slender pedicels spreading ; pod turgid. (V. Beccabunga, ^mfr. au(/iois.) 

 — Brooks and ditches ; common northward. June -Aug. — Flowers as in the 

 last ; the leaves shorter and broader. 



§ 3. Perennials, with diffuse or ascending branches from a decumbent base : leaves 

 opposite: racemes axillary, from alternate axils : corolla whetl-shaped : pod strongly 

 flattened, several-seeded. 



4. v. SClltclIata, L. (Marsh Speebwell.) Smooth, slender and 

 weak (6' -12' high) ; leaves sessile, linear, acute, remotely denticulate; racemes 1 or 

 2, verij slendei- and zigzag ; flowers few and scattered, on elongated spreading or 

 reflexed pedicels ; pod very flat, much broader than long, notched at both ends. 

 — Bogs ; common northward. Jime-Aug. (Eu.) 



5. "V. officinalis, L. (Common Speedwell.) Pubescent; stem pros- 

 trate, rooting at the base ; leaves short-petioled, obovate-eltiplicul or wedge-oblong, ob- 

 tuse, serrate; racemes densely many-floioered ; pedicels shorter than the calyx ; pod 

 obovate-triangular, broadly notched. — Dry hiUs and open woods ; certainly in- 

 digenous in many places, especially in the Alleghanies. July. (Eu.) 



§ 4. Leaves opposite: flowers in a terminal raceme, the lower bracts resembling the 

 stem-leaves: corolla wheel-shaped : pods flat, several-seeded. 



* Perenyiials [mostly turning blackish in drying). 



6. v. alpina, L. (Alpine Speedwell.) Stem branched from the 

 base, erect, simple (2' -6' high); leaves elliptical, or the lowest rounded, entire 

 or toothed, nearly sessile ; raceme hairy, few-flowered, crowded ; pod obovate, 

 notched. — Alpine summits of the White Mountains, New Hampsliire. (Eu.) 



