Vol. III.] 



BORAGE FAMILY 



5. Myosotis Virginica (L.)B.S.P. Spring 

 or Early Scorpion-grass. (Fig. 3042.) 



Lycopsis l^irgiiiica L. Sp. PI. 1^9. 1753. 

 Myosotis verna Nutt. Gen. 2: Add. 1818. 

 MyosoHs Virginica B. S. P. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 37. 18S8. 



Annual or biennial, hirsute-pubescent or hispid, 

 erect, branched, 3'-i5' high, the branches erect. 

 Leaves obloug or liuear-obloug, sessile, 3"-i2" 

 long, obtuse, or the lower spatulate and narrowed 

 into short petioles; racemes usually bracted at the 

 base, strict; peiliccls ascending or erect, or slightly 

 spreading at the apex, shorter than the fruiting 

 calyx; calyx somewhat 2-lipped, unequally 5-cleft, 

 the lobes lanceolate, acute, longer than the tube, 

 connivent in fruit, very hispid, the hairs, or most 

 of them, with minutely hooked tips; corolla white, 

 the limb lyz" broad or less; nutlets convex on the 

 back, slightly keeled and margined on the inner 

 side. 



On dry hills and banks, Maine and southern Ontario 

 to Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas. .\pril-June. 



II. LITHOSPERMUM L. Sp. PI. 132. 1753. 

 Annual or perennial, erect branching or rarely simple, pubescent hirsute or hispid herbs, 

 with alternate entire leaves, and small or large, white yellow or blue flowers in leafy-bracted 

 spikes or racemes. Calyx 5-parted or 5-cleft, the segments or lobes narrow. Corolla fun- 

 nelform or salverform, 5-lobed, naked, pubescent or crested in the throat, the lobes entire or 

 erose-denticulate, the tube sometimes pubescent at the base within. Stamens 5, included, 

 inserted on the throat of the corolla; filaments short. Ovary 4-divided; style slender, or fili- 

 form; stigma capitate, or 2-lobed. Nutlets 4. or fewer, erect, white, smooth and shining, or 

 bro-^fn and wrinkled, attached by their bases to the nearly flat receptacle, the scar of attach- 

 ment not concave. [Greek, stone-seed, from the hard nutlets.] 



About 40 species, natives of the northern hemisphere, a few in South .\merica and Africa. Be- 

 sides the following, some 7 others occur in the southern and southwestern parts of the United States. 

 Corolla white or yellowish, its tube shorter than or equalling the calyx; flowers distant. 



Nutlets brown, wrinkled and pitted; annual or biennial 

 Nutlets white, smooth and shining; perennials. 

 Loaves lanceolate, acute ; nutlets ovoid. 

 Leaves ovate, acuminate: nutlets globose-ovoid. 

 Corolla dull yellow, its tube longer than the calyx; leaves lanceolate; flowers dense. 

 Corolla bright yellow, its tube much longer than the calyx; flowers dense. 

 Corolla-lobes entire; flowers all complete. 



Hispid-pubescent; corolla-tube bearded at the base within. 



Hirsute, somewhat canescent; corolla-tube not bearded at the base within. 



I. L. arvense. 



Corolla-lobes erose-denticulate; later flowers cleistogamous. 



L. officinale. 

 L. iatifoliuvi. 

 L.. pilosuni. 



Gmelini. 

 canescens. 



7. L. anguslifolium. 



I. Lithospermum arvense L. Bastard 

 Alkanet. Corn GromwelL (Fig. 3043.) 



Lithosperutum ari'ense L. Sp. PI. 132. 1753. 



Annual or biennial, appressed-pubescent; stem 

 erect, usually branched, 6'-2o' high. Leaves 

 bright green, lanceolate, linear or linear-oblong, 

 sessile or the lowest short-petioled, mostly ap- 

 pressed, obtuse or acutish at the apex, narrowed 

 at the base, indistinctly veined, ^'2'-i>^' long. 

 yi"-i" wide, the uppermost smaller; flowers 

 sessile or very nearly so in the spikes, becom- 

 ing distant, white, about 3" long; calyx-seg- 

 ments linear-lanceolate, longer than or equal- 

 ling the corolla-tube; corolla funnelform, puber- 

 ulent in the throat; nutlets brown, wrinkled 

 and pitted, glabrous, about 1" high, convex on 

 the back, keeled on the inner side, one-third to 

 one-half the length of the calyx-segments 



In waste places and fields, Quebec to Ontario and 

 Michigan, south to Georgia and Kansas. Natural- 

 ized from Europe. Native also of .\sia. Called 

 also Pearl-plant and Salfern-stoneseed. May-Aug. 



