d [ 7 S z ]
VERONICA fcutellata.
Marjh Speedwell.
DIANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Cor. inferior, of i petal, 4-cleft, wheel-
fhaped ; lower divifion narroweft. Cap/. 2-celled.
S pec. C har. Clufters lateral, alternate; partial flower-
ftalks divaricated. Leaves linear, flightly indented.
Syn . Veronica fcutellata. Linn. Sp. PL 16. Sm. FI.
B rit, 21, Hudf. 5. With. 16. Hull. 5. Relh. 6.
Sibth. 5. Abbot. 3. Curt. Bond. fa fc. 5. t. 3.
V. aquatica anguftifolia minor. Rail Syn. 280.
A M U CH lefs common plant than V. Anagallis, being
to be met with only in fpongy boggy fpots, and chiefly where
the foil is fandy, flowering in July or Auguft.
It has a {lender perennial root, throwing out creeping runners,
and a few weak, fpreading, Ample (terns, 6 or 8 inches
long, clothed with oppoflte linear leaves, which are generally
but flightly toothed, fometimes ferrated, fometimes on the
contrary (as Linnaeus defcribes them) entire. The clufters
grow alternately, and confift of a few pale flelh-coloured,
purple-veined, rather elegant flowers, whofe (lender ftalks are
bent backwards after the corolla fades, and then the ripening
capfules, which are brown, and larger than in the V. Anagallis,
become confpicuous, and have given rife to the name fcutellata,
refembling fmall ihields. If the above defcription be attended
to, thefe two fpecies can never be confounded.
Although for the moft part fmooth, the plant now before us
has been found in a downy ftate by the Rev. C. Sutton of Norwich
j and indeed I have obferved that variety to be common
on St. Faith’s Newton bogs.