386 SCROPRULARIACEAE (FIGWORT FAMILY) 
Fic. 269.— Purs- 
lane Speedwell (Ve- 
ronica peregrina). 
xh 
Stem erect, smooth except for a few glandu- 
lar hairs, three inches to a foot high, usually 
branched but may be simple. Lower leaves 
opposite, rather thick, long ovate or oblong, 
obtuse, sharply toothed, with short petioles ; 
upper ones alternate, sessile, entire, narrowly 
oblong to linear, less than a half-inch in 
length. Flowers like the two preceding species 
in structure, solitary and nearly sessile in the 
axils, very pale blue or white, not more than 
a tenth of an inch broad, followed by a 
rounded and notched capsule larger than the 
flower and stuffed with many very fine yellow 
seeds, which are ripening and dropping into 
the soil all summer.. (Fig. 269.) 
Means of control 
In cultivated ground tillage should be con- 
tinued later than is usual, for, if not, late- 
grown plants will mature enough seed to keep 
the ground foul. Grasslands badly infested 
should be put under cultivation for one or 
two seasons before reseeding. Cattle eat 
the plant readily, but it is a poor substitute for good grass or 
clover. 
CORN SPEEDWELL 
Verénica arvénsis, L. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: Late March to September. 
Seed-time: May to November. 
Range: Nova Scotia to Ontario and Minnesota, southward to 
Florida, Texas, and Kansas. 
Habitat: Cultivated ground, waste places. 
This plant frequently begins to flower when less than three 
inches high, at which time the stem is erect and simple; later it 
branches diffusely from the axils, becoming a rather spreading 
plant, six to eight inches tall. Lower leaves opposite, petioled, 
