16 
DIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Veronica. 
Curt. 133— (E. Boi. 734. E.)— Col. Phyt. 8 —J. B. iii. 367. 2—Ger. 489. 8 
— Ger. Em. 613. 7— Bark. 762. 4. 
This plant formerly stood in the third subdivision next after V. agrestis, 
but it bears its flowers in such a spike-like form, that many Botanists 
have been misled by that arrangement. 
Plant mostly upright, stiff and dry in its habit, (four to six inches high, 
frequently branched at the base, pale green, rough with hairs. Bloss. 
very small, pale blue, white within the centre, solitary, nearly sessile. 
Capsule compressed, ciliated. E.) Root-leaves , and sometimes the lower 
stem-leaves, on leaf-stalks. Bloss. pale blue. 
Wall Speedwell. Speedwell Chickweed. (Welsh: Mur-rhwyddlwyn. 
E.) On old walls ; amongst rubbish ; and in fallow fields. A. May. 
V. verna. Spike terminal; flowers solitary: leaves with finger-like 
divisions : fruit-stalks shorter than the calyx. 
(Dicks. H. S. E.) — E. Bot. 25—Rose 2. 1— El. Dan. 252. 
( Stem stiff, upright, from one to four inches high, unequally downy. E.) 
Leaves wing-cleft; in one specimen gathered near Bury, spear-shaped, 
toothed, seven lines long, though the whole plant only two inches high. 
Woodw. (In a starved state few or none of the leaves are divided. 
Sm. E.) Cal. much longer than the blossom, and deeply divided into 
four spear-shaped, blunt, unequal segments. Bloss. blue, (with darker 
streaks, E.) green at the base. Floral-leaves spear-shaped, blunt. Fruit- 
stalks so short as to give the assemblage of flowers the appearance of a 
spike, and justify our removal of it from the third subdivision of the 
species. In its habit it has some resemblance to V. arvensis, but is readily 
distinguished from that by its finger-like, or rather wing-cleft leaves, 
(and much smaller size. E.) 
Vernal Speedwell. Dry, barren soil; old Avails and rocks; near Bury, 
in the most dry and driving sand ;. the plant is frequently nearly buried 
in it. Mr. Woodward. (Balking Hill, Harleston, Norfolk. Rev. H. 
Tilney, in Bot. Guide. In the Rye at Wordwell, West StaAV, and Ick- 
lingham, Suffolk. Sir T. G. Cullum, its first discoverer. E.) 
A. April—-May. 
V. officina'lis. Spikes on lateral fruit-stalks: leaves opposite: stem 
trailing. 
(E. Bot. 765. E.)— Ludw. 100— Curt. 198— Kniph. 4— FI. Dan. 248— 
Woodiv. 219 — Ger. 502. 1— Riv. 93. 2. Veronica — J. B. iii. 282.1— Blackw. 
143 —Fuchs. 1 66—Trag. 207—J. B. iii. 282. 2—Math. 693—Dod. 40. 3 
— Lob. Ohs. 250. 2—Ger. Em. 626. 2—Park. 550. 2—II. Ox. iii. 22. 7. 
(Stems procumbent, half a foot to a foot or more in length, pubescent, as 
is the whole plant more or less with short jointed hairs. E.) Little 
fruit-stalks shorter than the floral leaves. Tube of the blossom about 
half as long as the cup, white. Border pale purplish blue; the broadest 
segment marked with six or seven deeper purple streaks; the narrowest 
segment with three, and each of the lateral segments with four. Leaves 
egg-shaped, serrated; hairy underneath, and at the edges. Floral-leaves 
strap-shaped. Some of the fruit stalks are so near the end of the stem 
that at first view they appear terminal, but upon more accurate examina¬ 
tion we find one or more pairs of leaves beyond them. 
(A variety is found on several mountains of Scotland and Ireland, “ dif¬ 
fering in the total absence of pubescence or roughness on the stems and 
