36 AKNEBIA ECUIOJDES. 



flower, alternately with the lobes ; that the seed-vessel is so deeply divided as to 

 appear to consist of four distinct nut-like bodies, from the midst of which the style 

 arises ; and, further, that the leaves are placed alternately on a round stem.* The 

 arrangement of the flowers on one side of a spike, curled inwards like a crook, 

 a form of inflorescence termed by Botanists gyrate or scorpioid, is another peculiarity 

 which will not be overlooked. 



These are not the only features which will meet the eye in the Alkancts, but 

 those we have named are common to nearly all the plants of tbe Order. 



The distinction between the different genera consists in the presence or absence 

 of connivent scales at the mouth of the tube ; in the greater or less expansion of 

 the limb of the flower, and in the presence or absence of perforations at the base of 

 the nut-like lobes of the ovary. 



In the Alkanet, the throat will be found closed with five converging shaggy scales, 

 or lamina ; and these are present also in the different species of Borage, Bugloss, 

 Myosotis, Cynoglosmm, and Symphytum. In our native Comfrey, Symphytum 

 officinale, the scales are of a somewhat different character to those of the Alkanet, 

 being edged with glittering, semi-transparent callosities, which in a strong light 

 have a very interesting appearance. 



In the Echiums, Pulmonarias, and Lithospermums, these scales are absent, the 

 throat of the flower being quite open ; and it is to this section of the Order that the 

 Amelia eehwides belongs. 



This plant has been bandied about from one genus to another by different 

 Botanical writers, until it has acquired a somewhat lengthened list of synonymes. 

 By Linnams it was termed Lycopsis eehioides, but in that genus the mouth of the 

 flower is closed by scales, and the nuts are hollowed at their base ; by Bieberstein 

 it was classed with the Alkanets, but these too have the throat furnished with 

 scales, as we have already seen ; and by Fischer and Meyer it was placed among 

 the Lithospermums, under the name of L. erectum. It is with this genus that it 

 has the greatest aflinity, and there seems indeed no good reason for removing it 

 thence. .The genus Amelia is doubtless sufficiently distinct from Zitkospermzim, 

 the two-\obe& stigma of the latter being replaced in the former by one with four 

 lobes of a subglobose form. But it is singular that this feature, which is almost 

 the only point of difference between the two genera, is absent in the species under 

 consideration, its stigma being bifid. The flowers are larger than in most of the 

 Lithospermums, and the corolla is rather more salver-shaped, but these differences 

 appear insufficient to justify its separation from that genus. 



What its exact affinity may be, is, however, a question in which perhaps our 



* In the Lipworts (Labiate) the ovary is also four-lobed, but they are very readily distinguished from the 

 Borage tribe by their square stem, opposite leaves, and irregular flowers, which have the stamens didynamous. 



