202 BORRAGINACE^. Mi/osotis. 



16. MYOSITIS, L. FoRGET-MK-NOT, (From |Ui;V, mouse, and oi's', toTOt,-, 

 ear, i. e. mouse-ear, to which the leaves of some species are likened.) — Low and 

 small or spreading herbs, usually soft-hairy ; with sessile cauline leaves, and small 

 mostly blue flowers in at length elongated racemes, destitute of bracts. Stamens 

 and style in the genuine species included. Fl. summer or spring. 



# Calyx open in fruit, beset with fine and short appressed hairs, none of them hooked or glandular- 

 tipped: racemes very loose, -with widely spreading pedicels: herbage green; the pubescence 

 being rather sparse and short. 



M. pALUSTRis, Withering. (Forget-me-not.) Perennial by subterranean stolons: stems 

 soon decumbent, rooting at base : leaves lanceolate-oblong : calyx-lobes triangular, much 

 shorter than the tube : corolla with flat limb (3 or 4 lines in diameter), sky-blue witli yel- 

 lowish throat : nutlets somewhat angled or carinate ventrally. — Koch, Germ. SOi ; Syme, 

 Engl. Bot. ed. 3, t. 1104. M. scorpioides, ya.r. palustris,Ij. &c. — In wet ground, probably 

 only where it has escaped from cultivation, and not indigenous. (Nat. from Eu.) 



M. laxa, Lehm. Perennial from filiform subterranean shoots, or perhaps annual : stems 

 very slender, decumbent: pubescence all appressed : leaves lanceolate-oblong or somewhat 

 spatulate : pedicels usually double the length of the fruiting calyx : lobes of the latter as 

 long as the tube : limb of the corolla rather concave (2 or 3 lines broad, paler blue) : nut- 

 lets about equally convex both sides. — Asper. 83 ; Gray, Man. ed. 1, 338. M. ccespilosa, var. 

 laxa, DC. Prodr. x. 105. M. palustris, var. micrantha, Lehm. in Hook. Fl. ii. 81. M.palustris, 

 var. laxa, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 365. M. lingulatu, Lehm. Asper. 110; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Isl. 252 

 (M. ccespitosa, Schultz; Syme, Engl. Bot. 1. c. t. 1103), a European form. — In water and 

 wet ground, New York and Canada to Newfoundland. (N. Asia, Eu.) 



* * Calyx closed or with lobes erect in fruit, beset with looser and some bristly hairs having 

 minutely hooked tips. 



M. sylvatica, HoflEtn. Perennial, not stoloniferous, hirsute-pubescent, either green* or 

 cinereous : stems erect : leaves oblong-linear or lanceolate ; the radical conspicuously 

 petioled : pedicels as long as the calyx or longer : calyx almost 5-parted, hirsute with erect 

 hairs mixed near the base with some more si)reading and hooked ones ; the lobes merely 

 erect or slightly closing in fruit: corolla with (blue or at first purple) flat limb, 3 or 4 lines 

 in diameter : nutlets more or less margined and carinate ventrally at the apex. — Perhaps 

 none of the typical form in N. America. (Eu., N. Asia.) 



Var. alpestris, K.OCh. Stems tufted, 3 to 9 inches high : racemes more dense : 

 pedicels shorter and thicker, ascending, seldom longer than the calyx : nutlets larger. — 

 M. alpestris, Schmidt ; Lehm. Asper. 80 & in Hook. Fl. 1. c. ; Syme, Engl. Bot. ed. 3, t. 

 1106. M. rupicda, Smith, Engl. Bot. t. 2559. — Rocky Mountains, from Colorado (in the 

 higher alpine regions) and Wyoming (mainly with short pedicels) northward, and north- 

 west to Kotzebue Sound. (N. Asia, Eu.) 



M. arvensis, Hoffm. Annual or sometimes biennial, loosely hirsute: stem erect, loosely 

 branching, often a foot or more high : leaves oblong-lanceolate : racemes loose, naked and 

 pcduncled : pedicels spreading in fruit, longer or twice longer than the equal 5-cleft calyx, 

 which is copiously beset with spreading hooked hairs : corolla blue (rarely white) ; the con- 

 cave limb a line or so in diameter: calyx closed in fruit. — Lehm. Asper. I.e.; Syme, I.e. 

 t. 108. M. scorpioides, var. arvensis, L. M. intermedia, Link., DC. — Fields in low grounds. 

 New Brunswick to Louisiana (?), rare, perhaps not native. (Eu., N. Asia.) 



M. VERSICOLOR, Pers. Annual, slender, hirsute : leaves narrowly oblong : racemes slender, 

 mostly naked at base : pedicels much shorter than the deeply and equally 5-cleft calyx: 

 corolla yellowish, then blue, at length violet, not larger than in the preceding species, 

 which it otherwise resembles. — Smith, Engl. Bot. t. 480 ; Syme, 1. c. t. 1110, not Lehm. in 

 Hook. Fl. — Fields, sparingly introduced (Delaware, Canby). (Nat. from Eu.) 



IVI. verna, Nutt. Annual or biennial, roughish-hirsute or hispid : stems erect, 3 to 9 

 inches high : leaves spatulate or linear-oblong : racemes strict, leafy at base : pedicels 

 erect or appressed below but spreading toward the apex, equalling or shorter than the 

 5-cleft hispid unequal calyx: corolla white, small. — Gen. ii. in addit. unpaged; Gray, 

 Man. ed. 5, 365. Lijcopsis Virginica, L. Spec. i. 139, the plant of Gronov. Virg. Mijosntis 

 strirta. Gray, Man. ed. 1, not Link. M. injlexa, Engelm. in Am. Jour. Sci. xlvi. 98. — 

 Dry ground, E. New England to Florida, Texas, Missouri, &c. 



