sig ORD. XVIII. Asperifolia. BORAGO OFFICINALIS, 
ROOT divided, fibrous, and in Britain scarcely more than bien- 
nial. Stajks branched, round, succulent, hairy, erect, rising to 
the height of two feet. Leaves ovate, alternate, undulated, hairy, 
ciliated, irregularly defined at the edges, and at their bases em- 
bracing the stem. Flowers large, blue, placed in loose panicles, 
upon rough peduncles turning downwards. Calyx divided into 
five narrow ovate rough permanent segments. Corolla monope- 
talous, wheel-shaped: tube short: limb deeply cut into five spread- 
ing pointed divisions, which are longer than the calyx; faux or 
mouth of the tube closed by five prominences, which are blunt,. 
and notched at the end. Filaments five, taperingy converging: 
antherz oblong, approaching, and fixed to the middle and inner 
side of the filaments. Germens four: style filiform, longer than 
the stamina, and furnished with a simple stigma: the calyx supplies 
the office of capsule, containing the seeds, which are four, of an. 
irregular roundish shape. . 
The Borage, although commonly found growing about rubbish, 
and in waste grounds, is however not originally a native of this: 
Island, but has now been long enough naturalized here to be con- 
sidered as a British plant. Its flowers, which appear from June till. 
September, are of a beautiful blue colour: hence this plant, in many 
gardens, is cultivated for ornament, as well as for its popular use as. 
an ingredient in that grateful summer-beverage, known by the name’ 
of Coo] Tankard. 
This plant appears to be the buglossum of the ancients ;* and its 
reputed medicinal character seems also to correspond most exactly 
with that of our common bugloss, or anchusa officinalis L. The 
flowers of both have been termed cordial, and hence, formerly, 
much recommended in melancholia, and other affections of the 
* The following lines therefore apply to this plant: 
Vinum potatum quo sit macerata buglossa, 
Merorem cerebri dicunt auferre periti, 
Feriur convivas decoctio reddere letos.—Schol, Salern, ¢, 21, 
