248 



PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

 87. MYOSOTIS. Scorpion-grass. 



Linn.Gen.73. Juss.\3\. Fl. Dr. 2\2. Dill Gen. 99. t. 3. Law. 

 t. 91. Gartn.t.68. 



Nat. Ord. Asperifolice. Linn. 41. Boraginece. Juss. 42. Nine 

 following genera the same. See Grammar 102. 



[Professor Schrader, in a small treatise on the Asperifolice, 

 gives their natural characters as follows : 



Root simple or branched, perpendicular, sometimes oblique, 

 very rarely creeping. Stem herbaceous, rarely shrubby ; 

 branches alternate, axillary. Leaves for the most part 

 alternate, entire, sometimes wavy, or broadly toothed, 

 more or less bristly, like the rest of the herb ; their bristles 

 proceeding each from a small prominence finally be- 

 coming callous ; very rarely seated on a tubercle. Flowers 

 alternate, with or without bracteas, mostly forming a uni- 

 lateral cluster, at first spirally revolute, afterwards elon- 

 gated; the partial stalks enlarged as the seeds ripen. 

 Bracteas, if present, solitary, generally lateral, more or 

 less leafy, permanent. Calyx, except in Ccrinthe, of 1 leaf, 

 more or less deeply 5-cleft, very seldom merely 5-toothed ; 

 the segments or teeth generally a little unequal : perma- 

 nent, enlarged after flowering, and in some instances 

 altered in shape. Corolla inferior, of 1 petal, 5-cleft, the 

 segments mostly equal ; the mouth either completely, or 

 imperfectly, closed with convex hollow valves; or beset 

 with swellings, or plaits, or dense hairs ; or entirely naked 

 and pervious. Stamens from the interior part of the tube, 

 seldom from the mouth, alternate] with the segments of 

 the limb, and equal to them in number : anthers of 2 

 cells, distinct, very seldom attached to each other. Ger- 

 mens 4, very rarely (in Cerinthe) 2 only, distinct, seated 

 on a fleshy or glandular receptacle, subsequently enlarged, 

 and supporting the ripe fruit. Style 1, from the disk be- 

 tween the germens, permanent; and terminating in a 

 generally undivided stigma. Fruit as many close capsules 

 (achenia) as there are germens, various in substance, each 

 furnished, in some instances, with an umbilical depression, 

 from which proceeds the strophiolum, or crest, hardly oc- 

 curring but where that depression exists, and which is 

 whitish and fleshy? occupying the whole cavity ; but be- 



