The triphylla itself is widely diffused, growing alike on the sandy fields of Kent, and of Troy.  In D. 627 is given an extremely delicate and minute northern type, the flowers springing as in Persica, one from each leaf-axil, and at distant intervals.

8.  Officinalis.  D. 248, S. 294.  Fr.  ‘Veronique officinale’; (Germ.  Gebrauchlicher Ehrenpreis,) our commonest English and Welsh speedwell; richest in cluster and frankest in roadside growth, whether on bank or rock; but assuredly liking either a bank or a rock, and the top of a wall better than the shelter of one.  Uncountable ‘myriads,’ I am tempted to write, but, cautiously and literally, ‘hundreds’ of blossoms—­if one could count,—­ranging certainly towards the thousand in some groups, all bright at once, make our Westmoreland lanes look as if they were decked for weddings, in early summer.  In the Danish Flora it is drawn small and poor; its southern type being the true one:  but it is difficult to explain the difference between the look of a flower which really suffers, as in this instance, by a colder climate, and becomes mean and weak, as well as dwarfed; and one which is braced and brightened by the cold, though diminished, as if under the charge and charm of an affectionate fairy, and becomes a joyfully patriotic inheritor of wilder scenes and skies.  Medicinal, to soul and body alike, this gracious and domestic flower; though astringent and bitter in the juice.  It is the Welsh deeply honoured ’Fluellen.’—­See final note on the myth of Veronica, see Sec. 18.

9.  Thymifolia.  Thyme-leaved, G. 6.  Of course the longest possible word—­serpyllifolia—­is used in S. 978.  It is a high mountain plant, growing on the top of Crete as the snow retires; and the Veronica minor of Gerarde; “the roote is small and threddie, taking hold of the upper surface of the earth, where it spreadeth.”  So also it is drawn as a creeper in F. 492, where the flower appears to be oppressed and concealed by the leafage.

10.  Minuta, called ‘hirsuta’ in S. 985:  an ugly characteristic to name the lovely little thing by.  The distinct blue lines in the petals might perhaps justify ‘picta’ or ‘lineata,’ rather than an epithet of size; but I suppose it is Gerarde’s Minima, and so leave it, more safely named as ‘minute’ than ‘least.’  For I think the next variety may dispute the leastness.

[Illustration:  FIG.  V.]

11.  Verna.  D. 252.  Mountains, in dry places in early spring.  Upright, and confused in the leafage, which is sharp-pointed and close set, much hiding the blossom, but of extreme elegance, fit for a sacred foreground; as any gentle student will feel, who copies this outline from the Flora Danica, Fig. 5.

12.  Peregrina.  Another extremely small variety, nearly pink in colour, passing into bluish lilac and white.  American; but called, I do not see why, ‘Veronique voyageuse,’ by the French, and Fremder Ehrenpreis in Germany.  Given as a frequent English weed in S. 927.