The Germander Speedwell (_Veronica Chamædrys_) is one of our most beautiful and most abundant spring flowers. It is very common on banks and by roadsides, flowering during May and June. Its stem is weak, decumbent, rooting at the base, often considerably more than a foot in length, and remarkable for the line of hairs that changes to alternate sides at each node. A raceme of flowers, much longer than the leaves, arises from several of the nodes. The flowers are bright blue, about half an inch in diameter, with a four-cleft calyx; a deeply four-cleft corolla, the lower lobe of which is narrowest; and two prominent stamens. The fruit is a very broad, flat capsule, notched at the top, narrowed towards the base, splitting into two valves when ripe. [Illustration: THE COLT'S-FOOT IN EARLY SPRING.] [Illustration: THE GERMANDER SPEEDWELL.] A fourth species, the Wall Speedwell (_V. arvensis_), is abundant on walls and dry roadsides. It is a prostrate, downy plant, generally more or less thickly covered with dust, flowering from April to about the end of summer. The stem is from four inches to a foot in length, and two lines of hairs run along the branches. The leaves are oval-cordate, crenate, and slightly stalked. The flowers are very small and inconspicuous, and are frequently almost completely hidden by the crowded upper leaves. They have very short corolla-tubes, and are arranged in loose, terminal, spikelike racemes. The Grey Field Speedwell (_V. polita_) is common in waste places and rough fields, flowering from April to September. Its flowers are bright blue, about a quarter of an inch across, solitary, axillary, on stalks which are longer than the leaves. The sepals are broadly oval and pointed, and the petals are all of the same colour. The leaves of this plant are stalked, cordate, and irregularly toothed. Our last example of the order is the Green Field Speedwell (_V. agrestis_), also common in fields and by the roadside. It has several prostrate stems, from four to eight inches long; and stalked, cordate leaves with irregularly serrate margins. The flowers are small, about a fifth of an inch across, solitary, axillary, on stalks shorter than the leaves. The sepals are narrow, oblong, and blunt; and the lower petal is white. This species flowers from April to the end of the summer. [Illustration: THE WHITE DEAD NETTLE.] The Dead Nettles (genus _Lamium_, of the order _Labiatæ_) may be readily distinguished from the Stinging Nettles, with which they are often confused, by their square stems, and whorls of showy, lipped flowers. Further, these flowers may be recognised from among the others of their own order by the ten-ribbed, bell-shaped calyx; and by the one or two teeth on each side of the lower lip of the corolla.