2j8 PENTANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Anchusa^ 



roundisli, or obtuse, wrinkled, each hollowed out at the 

 base, so as to form a border to the scar, and all concealed 

 in the enlarged calyx. 

 Herbaceous, hairy or bristly, mostly perennial, or biennial. 

 Leaves alternate, seldom stalked, acute, single-ribbed, 

 often marked with callous points. Clusters many-flowered, 

 revolute, bracteated or leafy. Cor. fine blue or purple, 

 with light-coloured valves. 



1. A. officinalis. Common Alkanet. 



Spikes imbricated, unilateral. Bracteas ovate, as long as 



the calyx. Leaves lanceolate. 

 A. officinalis. Linn. Sp. PL \9\. mild.v.\.75G. Pi. 5/. 214; 



excluding the last 5 synonyms. Engl. Bot. v. 10. t. 662. Fl. Dan. 



t. 572. Lehm. Asperif. 246. Schrad. Asperif. 23./. 1 . Ehrh. PL 



Of. IS]. 

 A. n. 59. Linn. Mat. Med. 20. 



A. tinctoria. JVoodv. t. 92. 



Buglossum n. 599. Hcdl. Hist. v. 1. 265 j comprehending, as it 



seems, A. paniculata, Fl. Grcec. t. 163. 

 Buglossa. Brunf. Herb. r. 1. 112./. 



B. major. Trag. Hist. 233./. 

 In waste ground near the sea. 



On the links near Hartley pans, Northumberland. Rev. Thomas 

 Butt. 



Perennial. June, July. 



Root long, tapering, blackish, without any dyeing quality. Herb 

 all over rough with small bristly hairs, often proceeding from 

 callous warts. Stem U- or 2 feet high, erect, angular, leafy, 

 somewhat branched ; panicled above. Leaves lanceolate, long 

 and narrow ; the radical ones stalked ; the rest sessile, slightly 

 ovate at the base. Spikes generally in pairs, stalked, revolute, 

 with ovate, or ovate-lanceolate bracteas. Segments of the calyx 

 varying in depth, as Dr. Lehmann justly remarks. Cor. red at 

 first, then deep purple, with hairy blueish valves. Seeds ovate, 

 acute, brown, unequally wrinkled. 



This has been reckoned one of the four cordial flowers, and as such 

 has come into medical use, along with Borage ; but virtues of 

 this kind attributed to either are truly nonsensical. Both plants 

 Ti-re mucilaginous, but the Mallow tribe is more so. Dr. Wither- 

 ing confounds the history of this Anchusa with that of the true 

 red Alkanet-root, A. tinctoria, Fl. Grcec. t. 166, valuable for the 

 beautiful colour it gives to oily substances, and which Linnaeus 

 confounds with his own Lithospermum tinctorium. 



2. A. sempervirens . Evergreen Alkanet. 

 Flower-stalks axillary, each bearing two dense spikes, with 



