248 PENTANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Myosotis. 



comes contracted and wrinkled as the fruit ripens, so as 

 to render the depression more visible. Seed solitary in 

 each capsule, with a single skin, and no albumen; embryo 

 inverted ; cotyledons 2, slightly convex ; radicle superior. 

 Receptacle mostly unaltered, and flat ; in some convex ; 

 in some conical ; in odiers columnar, or pyramidal ; 

 marked with scars, or little hollows, where the capsules 

 are attached. Schrad. Asperif. 1 7. 



I rather, after the example of Linnaeus, consider these sup-, 

 posed achenia as naked seeds ; nor is there any advantage 

 in denominating them, after Goertner and some other 

 writers, nuts, which in that case would merely mean /lard 

 seeds. The kernel within having but a single ski?!, mem- 

 brana ; and the near relationship of this Order to the 

 Verticillatcje of Ray and Linnaeus, the Labiatce of Jussieu, 

 being acknowledged, analogy, though often a treacherous 

 guide, must lead us to consider the second covering as 

 the outer skin, testa, in one case as well as the other. In 

 the Verticillatce there can be no question about the mat- 

 ter, if naked seeds be ever allowed to exist ; and to deny 

 this is merely a dispute of words. In the Asperifolicc, the 

 outer skin is often indeed elaborately constructed ; and 

 sometimes dowuiy, or prickly ; but such characters are 

 not more appropriate or essential to a seed-vessel than to 

 a seed. The seeds of Cerinthe, which at first sight seem a 

 difficulty less easy to be surmounted, are merely confluent, 

 or combined laterally, in pairs, like the nuts of Messer- 

 schmidia, which last are the seeds of a drupa, the only ge- 

 nuine mils, of which a Walnut is the type.] 



Myosotis. 



Cat. inferior, of 1 leaf, oblong, erect, divided half way down, 

 or more, into 5 acute equal segments, permanent. Cor. 

 of one petal, salver-shaped; tube cylindi'ical; limb ascend- 

 ing, or horizontal, in 5, rather deep, obtuse, often notched, 

 equal segments : mouth half closed with 5 little, rounded, 

 notched, convex, slightly prominent valves, Filam. very 

 short, in the throat. Anthers small, oblong, concealed 

 by the valves. Germens 4-, roundish, inserted into the 

 base of the calyx. Style thread-shaped, central, erect, 

 the length of the tube. Stigma obtuse. Seeds 4, ovate, 

 rather compressed, pointed, smooth, in the bottom of the 

 somev^'hat enlarged, closed calyx, each with a small hollow 

 at its point of insertion. 



