_Veronica virginica (Leplandra virginica)_
_Flowers_--Small, white or rarely bluish, crowded in dense spike-like
racemes 3 to 9 in. long, usually several spikes at top of stem or from
upper axils. Calyx 4-parted, very small; corolla tubular, 4-lobed; 2
stamens protruding; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ Straight, erect, usually
unbranched, 2 to 7 ft. tall. _Leaves:_ Whorled, from 3 to 9 in a
cluster, lance-shaped or oblong, and long-tapering, sharply saw-edged.
_Preferred Habitat_--Rich, moist woods, thickets, meadows.
_Flowering Season_--June-September.
_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Alabama, west to Nebraska.
“The leaves of the herbage at our feet,” says Ruskin, “take all kinds
of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them. Star-shaped,
heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft,
furrowed, serrated, in whorls, in tufts, in wreaths, in spires,
endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from
footstalks to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness,
and take delight in outstripping our wonder.” Doubtless light is the
factor with the greatest effect in determining the position of the
leaves on the stem, if not their shape. After plenty of light has been
secured, any aid they may render the flowers in increasing their
attractiveness is gladly rendered. Who shall deny that the brilliant
foliage of the sumacs, the dogwood, and the pokeweed in autumn does not
greatly help them in attracting the attention of migrating birds to
their fruit, whose seeds they wish distributed? Or that the clustered
leaves of the Dwarf Cornel and Culver’s-root, among others, do not set
off to great advantage their white flowers which, when seen by an insect
flying overhead, are made doubly conspicuous by the leafy background
formed by the whorl?