This bright blue flower is to be found on banks, and in woods and
pastures all over the country. It blooms in spring and early summer.
Many people call this the Forget-me-not, but that is not correct, and
you should notice carefully the difference between the two plants. They
are not really alike.
The Germander Speedwell is a slender, wiry plant, whose stem sometimes
creeps along the surface of the ground before it grows upward.
The flowers have four small petals of the brightest blue, and within the
flower at the foot of the petals is a small white circle, like a little
white eye looking up.
Two stamens with crimson heads rise from this white circle, and in the
very centre of the flower there is a tiny green seed-vessel, with a
spike coming out of the top.
The four sepals are very narrow green straps with sharp points.
The dark green hairy leaves are oval, with the edges cut all round like
the teeth of a saw. They have no stalks, and they grow in pairs opposite
each other. The slender stems, which bear the flowers in loose heads
near the top, spring from between the leaf and the main stem.