236 THE BOKAGE FAMILY. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 1. BoKAGE — {Borchjo officinalis.) 



Escapes occasionally with garden refuse into waste land, but without 

 power seemingly to establish itself for more than a year or two, except 

 where sown. Fl. July — September. Annual. 

 E. B. i. 30 ; Baxter, i. 66. 



A remarkably curious and elegant plant, deserving much wider cultivation as a 

 garden ornament than it receives. The flat and star-like coroUas, of the intensest 

 Italian azure, and the prominent cone of stamens, which are so deeply purple as 

 to seem black, remind us of the blossoms of the potatoe and the nightshade, 

 both of which they closely resemble in figure. The stem is succulent with watery 

 juice, and, when crushed, smells like cucumber. By reason of this, and its 

 singular coldness, the plant was formerly in great repute as a refrigerant. Every 

 part of it is thickly studded with long white transparent bristles, pointed enough 

 to prick the fingers if carelessly gathered. Borage supplies the best illustration 

 easily reached of the four-lobed ovarj', separating when ripe, as above described, 

 into four large, di'y, seed-like achenia. 



2. CoMFEEY — {Symphytum officinale.) 

 Ditch-banks in the neighbourhood of Jackson's Boat, and elsewhere 

 about Chorlton, but sparingly. Fl. June, July. 



E. B. xii. 817; Baxter, ii. 101. 

 Not infrequent in cottage and farm-house gardens, as at Lymni, Sale, Prest- 

 wich, Outwoods, and Strines, being esteemed in rustic medicine, both for man 

 and cattle. 



3. Field Bugloss — {Lycdpsis arvensts.) 

 Cornfields and other dry places, rare. About Bowdon, towards 

 Mr. Neild's model farm, and elsewhere in the district extending from 

 there to Didsbury. Fl. June, July. Annual. 



Curtis, ii. 300; E. B. xiv. 030; Baxter, i. 21. 



4. Yellow Gromavell — {Lithospermum arvense.) 



Cornfields, but only as an occasional visitant, and apt to be lost 



through the changes of crops. Mobberley, 1858. Fl. June, July. 



Annual. 



E. B. u. 123. 



5. Lungwort — {Pulmonaria officinalis.) 



In a wood on the left hand of the river Goyt, between Compstall 



Bridge and Marple Aqueduct. (Mr. J. Sidobotham.) Fl. February — 



May. 



E. B. ii. Ila ; Baxter, ii. 102. 



