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VERONICA BECCABUNGA. 
Broad-leaved Brook-lime * 
Class DiANDRiA. Order MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. Ord. Personate, Linn. Pedicularis, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Corolla border four-cleft, with the lowest segment 
narrower. Capsule two-celled, with corymbose racemes. 
Spec. Char. Racemes lateral. Leaves ovate, flat. Stem 
creeping. 
This species of Veronica,t has probably derived its specific 
name from the Flemish beck-pungen, (mouth smart) and its English 
name, from its being constantly found growing in brooks and muddy 
waters. Brook-lime is an indigenous perennial plant, flowering in 
June and July. It is common in most parts of Britain : in the north 
of England and in Scotland, (where it is often eaten like water- 
cresses) it is known by the name of water purple. 
The roots issue from the joints of the stems, and consist of nu- 
merous, long, simple fibres ; the stems are succulent, of a reddish 
colour, round, thick, smooth, shining, branched, and leafy; the leaves 
are opposite, ovate, obtuse, serrated, somewhat fleshy, punctured, of 
a pale green colour, and stand upon short petioles ; the flowers grow 
in opposite clusters from the axilla of the leaves, and supported on 
delicate peduncles ; the calyx is a periantheum, divided into four 
acute segments, shorter than the corolla ; the corolla is mouopetalous, 
somewhat wheel-shaped, the brim of which is of a beautiful sky 
blue colour, striped at the bottom with veins of a deeper hue, and 
divided into four obtuse segments, the lowermost of which is narrower 
than the others; the tube is white; the filaments are somewhat 
longer than the style, and support blueish coloured anthers, the pol- 
len of which is white ; the germen is roundish, double ; the seed 
* Fig. «. the pistiUum. b. An anther, c. The calyx, d. The capsule e. Seeds, 
t The Genus Veronica comprise numerous species, sixty-eight are enumerated in the 
Hortas Gantabrigensis. 
VOL. I. 2 G 
