But it withereth the grass,
And the flower thereof falleth,
And the grace of the fashion of it perisheth.
So reads the passage in the Epistle of James, which seems so graphically to describe the brief life of this little flower, that we might almost believe the Apostle had had it in mind, were it to be found in the East.
The blue-eyed grass belongs to the same family as the showy fleur-de-lis and blossoms during the summer, being especially plentiful in moist meadows. It is sometimes called “eye-bright,” which name belongs by rights to Euphrasia officinalis.
Venus’s Looking-glass.
Specularia perfoliata. Campanula Family.
Stem.—Somewhat hairy, three to twenty inches high. Leaves.—Toothed, rounded, clasping by the heart-shaped base. Flowers.—Blue. Calyx.—Three, four, or five-lobed. Corolla.—Wheel-shaped, five-lobed. Stamens.—Five. Pistil.—One, with three stigmas.
We borrow from Mr. Burroughs’s “Bunch of Herbs” a description of this little plant, which blossoms from May till August. “A pretty and curious little weed, sometimes found growing in the edge of the garden, is the clasping specularia, a relative of the harebell and of the European Venus’s looking-glass. Its leaves are shell-shaped, and clasp the stalk so as to form little shallow cups. In the bottom of each cup three buds appear that never expand into flowers, but when the top of the stalk is reached, one and sometimes two buds open a large, delicate purple-blue corolla. All the first-born of this plant are still-born as it were; only the latest, which spring from its summit, attain to perfect bloom.”
Skull-cap.
Scutellaria. Mint Family (p. [16]).
Stem.—Square, usually one or two feet high. Leaves.—Opposite, oblong, lance-shaped or linear. Flowers.—Blue. Calyx.—Two-lipped, the upper lip with a small, helmet-like appendage which at once identifies this genus. Corolla.—Two-lipped, the upper lip arched, the lateral lobes mostly connected with the upper lip, the lower lip spreading and notched at the apex. Stamens.—Four, in pairs. Pistil.—One, with a two-lobed style.