BLUE AND PURPLE FLOWERS 
Brooklime (Veronica americana) . Figwort family. 
June to September. 
A perennial with hollow stem, one to three feet long, prostrate, 
ascending at the end (decumbent). The small light-blue, 
purple-striped flowers are in racemes from the axils; stamens 
two, projecting and spreading. Leaves mostly with stalks, 
oblong to egg-shaped, generally toothed, pointed, about three 
inches long. Common in ditches. Water Speedwell {Veronica 
anagallis-aquatica) is similar but has leaves without stalks. 
Purple Virgin's Bower {Clematis verticillaris) . Crowfoot 
family. May, June. 
A vine, bearing flowers solitary in axils, two or three inches 
across, with four purple sepals, resembling petals. Leaves of 
three leaflets with slender stalks. Rocky places, not common 
in New England. The fruit has the effect of a plume, each of 
its long tails bearing stiff hairs. The generic name was given 
by Dioscorides, the Greek physician-botanist, to a delicate, 
climbing plant. The broad outer stamens suggest petals. 
Bluets. Quaker Ladies ( Housionia ccerulea) . Madder 
family. April to July. 
A familiar perennial with stems a few inches high, from 
slender root-stalks. The flowers are small (one-half inch), 
white or pale-lilac with yellow centres, solitary at the end of 
the stems. The calyx is four-lobed; the corolla has a short 
tube ending in four divisions; stamens four, stigmas two. 
Leaves small, spoon-shaped to oblong. Grassy places. Named 
in honor of William Houston. 
See also Blue Pimpernel, in Red section, p. 288. 
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