CLASS V. ORDER 1.1 LITHOSPERM0M. 223 



flowering. Corolla scarcely the length of the calyx, ribbed, the limb 

 of five rounded lobes, within the throat of the tube is a circle of tine 

 hairs. Nuts four, lai'ge, spreading, tuberculated, and downy. 



Habitat. — Woods and thickets, rare ; [sle of Wight, Hampshire, 

 and in Flintshire, Scotland. 



Perennial; flowering in May and June. 



The leaves of this species vary from linear-lanceolate 'c o'^ate- 

 lanceolate, which charxcters were deemed by some of the continental 

 Botanists, sufficient to make them into distinct species, as P. oblongata 

 Schrad, P. media Reicheub. This plant was supposed to contain the 

 same medicinal properties as the above, but like it, is now out of use. 



GENUS III. LITHOSPER'MUM Linn. Gromwell. 



Nat. Ord. BoRAGiN'EiE. De Cand. 



Gen. Char. Calyx in five deep segments. Corolla funnel-shaped, 



five-lobed. Stigma obtuse bifid. Nuts smooth and shining, or 



wrinkled. — Name from SiSoj, a stone ; and a-Trs^jxa., a, seed ; from 



the hardness of the seeds or nuts. 



1. L. officina'le, Linn. (Fig. 291.) common Gromwell, Grey Mill or 



Grey Millet. Stem erect, very much branched, leaves lanceolate 



acute, ribbed, very rough above, hairy beneath, nuts smooth and 



shining. 



English Botany, t. 134. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 256. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 99.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 164. 



Rod tapering. The whole plant rough, with close pressed hairs 

 pointing upwards. Stem from one to two feet high, or more, round, 

 striated, very nmch branched, especially in the upper part, leafy; the 

 leaves lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, with a strong mid-rib, and several 

 lateral ones, pale green, and hairy beneath, above rough, with short 

 rigid bristles arising from a flat callous tuberculated base. Infio- 

 rescence a recurved leafy spike. Flowers from the axis of the leaves, 

 on short stalks. Calyx in five deep lanceolate acute segments, mostly 

 equal, very hairy. Corolla small, pale buff" colour, funnel-shaped, the 

 tube mostly rather longer than the segments of the calyx, the limb 

 hairy externally, of five-lobed spreading obtuse segments, each having 

 at its base a small hairy protuberance. Stamens about the middle of 

 the tube. Anthers oblong, on short filaments. Pistil shorter than the 

 corolla. Stigma obtuse bifid. Fruit four, spreading obovate. Nuts 

 brownish white, highly polished, very hard, and brittle, seldom more 

 than one or two ripening on each calyx. 



Habitat. — Dry, waste, uncultivated places ; frequent in England 

 aud Ireland, but rare in Scotland. 



