PENTANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Asperugo. 265 



In waste or cultivated ground, and by road sides, frequent ; yet 

 generally thought not indigenous. 



Biennial. June, July. 



Root tapering, mucilaginous, as well as the herbage, whicli is 

 clothed all over with very pungent bristles. Stem branched, 1^ 

 or 2 feet high, round, spreading, leafy. Leaves alternate, ovate, 

 wavy, and more or less toothed ; the lower ones broadest, and 

 stalked. Flovcrs numerous, in terminal drooping bunches, very 

 beautiful. Corolla an inch broad, of a most brilliant blue ; pink 

 in the bud. Valves and anthers prominent, blackish. Seeds 

 wrinkled and warty, of a light sliining brown. The whole plant 

 has an odour approaching to Cucumber and Burnet, which gives 

 a flavour to a cool tankard ; but its supposed exhilarating qua- 

 lities, which caused Borage to be reckoned one of the four cor- 

 dial flowers, along with Alkanet, Roses, and Violets, may justly 

 be doubted. 



94. ASPERUGO. Madwort. 



Linn. Gen. 77. Juss. 13\. FL Br. 220. Tourn.t.bA. Lam.t.9A. 

 Schrad. Asperif.f. 9. 



Nat. Ord. see n. 87. 



Cal. inferior, of 1 leaf, divided halfway into 5 small, nearly 

 equal, segments, permanent; subsequently enlarged, com- 

 pressed, forming two erect, parallel, unequally sinuated 

 and toothed, veiny lobes. Cor. of 1 petal, funnel-shaped; 

 tube cylindrical, very short ; limb longer, in 5 rounded 

 spreading segments ; mouth nearly closed by 5 convex, 

 obtuse valves, converging horizontally. Filam. very short, 

 in the throat, alternate with the valves, and concealed by 

 them. Anth. small, roundish, of 2 lobes. Germ, 4-, com- 

 pressed. Style erect, the length of the tube. Stigma blunt. 

 Seeds 4, obovate, tuberculated, compressed, imperforate 

 at the base, attached laterally in pairs to a central column, 

 formed of the lower part of the style. 



Herbaceous, prostrate, rough with minute, rigid, depressed 

 bristles. Floral leaves opposite. FL axillary, blue. 



1. K, procwnheiis. German Madwort. 



Calyx of the fruit fiat. 



A.procumbens. Linn.Sp. Pl.im. Willd.v.\.77Q. Fl. Br. 220. 



Enrrl.Bot.v.\0.t.66\. Fl. Grcpc.v.2.(j5.t.\77. Hook. Scot.70. 



Don H. Br. 158. Ft. Dan. t. 552. Lehm. Asperif. 208. Schrad. 



Asperif. 26. f. 9. 

 A. n. GOO. Hall. Hist. v. L 2G9. 

 A. vulgaris. Raii Sijn. 228. 



