382 SCROPHTTLARIACEAB. 



petioles; peduncles scarcely longer than the leaves; inflorescence loosely 

 corymbose-racemose; the bracts small and the pedicels, al least the lower, 

 Beveral times longer than the flowers; corolla white, 2 lines long; capsule 

 scarcely known. 



Mf. Tamalpais; Bolinas Ridge; Humboldt Co. and northward to Oregon. 

 Mar.-Apr. 



DIGITALIS PURPUREA L. Foxglove. Tall stout biennial topped by long 

 terminal commonly L-sided racemes of showy flowers; corolla tubular-cam- 

 panulate, declined, white or purple. — European garden plant naturalized on the 

 Humboldt and Mendocino coasts. In Europe it is poisonous to horses; nc» 

 reports received from California. 



16. VERONICA L. Speedwell. 

 Ours herbs with cauline leaves and flowers in axillary or terminal racemes, 

 or solitary. Pedicels without bractlets. Calyx in ours 4-parted. Corolla sub- 

 rotate, deeply 4-cleft, the upper lobe commonly broader than the lateral lobes 

 or the lower one. Stamens 2, one on each side of the upper corolla-lobe, 

 exserted. Stigma entire. Capsule flattened, often obcordate, septicidal. Seeds 

 few to many. (Name thought to be in memory of St. Veronica.) 



Flowers solitary in the axils, the leaves alternate or the lowest opposite; annuals. 



Diffuse plants; flowers blue; capsule with two strongly divergent lobes; fruiting ped- 

 icels y± to 1 in. long 1. V. buxbaumii. 



Erect plants; flowers white; capsule obcordate, on pedicels l / 2 to 1 line long 



2. V. peregrina. 



Flowers in racemes in the axils of the opposite leaves; capsule rotund, not deeply or 



scarcely at all notched at apex 3. V . amcricana. 



1. V. buxbaumii Tenore. Stems branched from the base, */» to 1" ft. or 

 more long, diffuse or procumbent ; herbage pubescent with spreading hairs ; 

 leaves roundish or oval, often broader than long, 5 to 7 lines long, on petioles 

 1 line long, rather deeply toothed above the base; flowers blue with a small 

 white center, 2% to 3 lines broad; short tube of corolla closed with a barrier 

 of hairs; upper and lateral lobes subequal, larger than the lower lobe; filaments 

 thick-fleshy; capsule 4 lines broad, with two strongly divergent lobes, appear- 

 ing as if twin; seeds about 9 in each cell, oblong or roundish, wrinkled, 

 with a fissure on one side, 1 line long. 



Escaped from gardens: Berkeley; Newark; Woodland. Apr. Another gar- 

 den annual, V. arvensis L., Corn Speedwell, is sometimes met with as an 

 escape: pedicels shorter than the flowers; corolla blue, smaller; capsule notched 

 at apex, the lobes not divergent. 



2. V. peregrina L. Xeckweed. Annual, erect, 4 to 9 or 12 in. high, 

 simple or branched from the base; herbage finely puberulent ; leaves alternate 

 or the lowest opposite, oblong, '•. to 1 in. long, entire or dentate, only the 

 lowest petioled; flowers solitary in the ;ixils of the alternate leaves, sometimes 

 in one of the axils of the opposite Leaves, appearing racemose above by the 

 reduction of the upper Leaves to bracts; pedicels shorter than the small white 

 flowers or obcordate capsules. 



Common in Low places in valley fields: Coasl Ranges; plains of the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin; Southern California. May. 



3. V. americana Schwein. Bkooki.imk. Glabrous perennial; stems erect 

 or ascending, I to 2 ft. long; leaves oblong-ovate, serrate. l'_. to :> in. long, 

 short petioled, bearing peduncled racemes in their ;ixils; pedicels filiform, 



ding the Linear-oblong bracts and much longer than the rotund capsule; 

 corolla blue. 



