THE ONOSMAS OF LINNÆUS AND SIBTHORP. 387 
The Onosmas of Linnæus and Sibthorp, with a Note on those of Tournefort’s 
Herbarium. By C. C. Lacarra, M.A., F.L.S. 
(PLATE 38.) 
[Read 29th November, 1923.] 
I. 
THE name Onosma has sometimes been treated as feminine ; so by Linnæus, 
De Candolle, and others; sometimes as neuter, as by Lehmann, Boissier, 
Bentham and Hooker, Ind. Kew. etc., the neuter prevailing in modern 
works. In what follows I have used the neuter throughout, even when 
quoting authors who employed the feminine. As to the merits, övospa is, 
of course, neuter in Greek, but Linnæus probably thought that he was 
following Pliny, xxvii. 86: “ Onosma longa folia habet .... prægnans si 
edit EAM .... abortum facere dicitur." There is an ambiguity ; it must 
remain uncertain whether Pliny would really have made Onosma feminine, 
or we should understand eam as equivalent to eam herbam. 
II. 
THE SPECIMENS OF ONOSMA IN TOURNEFORT'S HERBARIUM 
AT PARIS. 
In the * Institutiones, p. 138, there are enumerated three species of Sym- 
phytum, now transferred to Onosma ; these are :— 
(1) S. Echi folio ampliore, radice rubra, flore luteo, syn. Anchusa lutea, 
major C. B. P. 255, Anchusa lutea J. B. 3. 583, Lob. Icon. 578. 
(2) S. Echi folio ampliore, radice rubra, flore exalbido, with syns. 
Anchusa flore albo aut pallido Clusii J. B. 3. 383. and Anchusa 
exalbido flore Clus. Hist. clxv. 
(3) S. Echi folio angustiore, radice rubra, flore luteo, with syns. Anchusa 
lutea minor C.B.P. 255, Anchusa echioides lutea, cerinthoides 
montana Col. Pars i. 188. 
Of these only two, the first and third, are to be found in the herbarium. 
One, no. 629, sine loco, labelled Symphytum Echii folio angusliore, radice 
rubra, flore luteo, Inst. Anchusa echioides lutea cerinthotdes montana, is—so 
far as can be judged from an incomplete specimen without lower leaves or 
root—the asterotrichous plant common in the Apennines, first discovered by 
Fabio Colonna, the true O. echioides a of Linnæus. The other, no. 628, also 
sine loco, labelled Symphytum Echii folio ampliore, radice rubra, but without 
the addition of ffore luteo or flore ewalbido, is haplotrichous and evidently the 
Onosma echioides of French authors = O. echioides B of Linn. quoad plantam 
ex Gallia, corresponding to no. 1 of the * Institutiones 
