ECHULES.] 



BORAGINACE.E. 



655 



Order CCLIII. BORAGINACEiE.— Boragewortp. 



Boraginese, Juss. Gen. 143. (1789) ; R. Brown Prodr. 492 ; Bartl. Ord. Nat. 196. (1830).— Asperifolia-, 

 Linn. Martins Conspectus, No. 118. (1835) ; Endl. Qen. cxliii. 



Diagnosis. — Echial Exogcns, with regular symmetrical flowers , 5 stamens, 4 nuts or two 

 pairSj a naked stigma, and circinate inflorescence. 



Herbaceous plants or shrubs. Stems round. Leaves altei-nate, often covered with 

 asperities consisting of hairs proceeding fi'om an indurated enlarged base. Flowers in 



Fig. CCCCXXXIX. 



1 -sided g>'rate spikes or racemes, or panicles, sometimes solitary and axillary. Calyx 

 persistent, ^\'ith 4 or 5 di^^sions. Corolla hj-pogj-nous, monopetalous, generally regu- 

 lar, 5 -cleft, sometimes 4 -cleft, ^Wth an imbricated a?stivation. Stamens inserted 

 upon the corolla, equal to the number of its lobes and alternate with them. Ovary 

 4-parted, 4-seeded, or 2-parted, 4-celled ; ovules attached to the lowest point of the 

 cavity, amphitropal ; style simple, arising from the base of the lobes of the ovary ; 

 stigma simple or bifid. Nuts 2 or 4, distinct. Seed separable from the pericarp, des- 

 titute of albumen. Embryo with a superior radicle ; cotyledons pai-allel with the axis, 

 plano-convex, sometimes 4 ! in Amsinckia. . 



The plants of this Order are nearly allied to Labiates, from which they are essentially 

 distinguished by the regularity of the corolla, the presence of 5 fertile stamens, the 

 absence of resmous dots in the foliage, a round (not square) figure of the stem, a gyrate 



Fig. CCCCXXXIX.— 1. Symphytum officinale; 2. a diagram of its flower; 3. its pistil; 4. the 

 calyx opened, \yith two of the nuts remaining ; 5. a vertical section of a nut. 



