II4 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



The Scorpion Grass is an aquatic plant, which is common by the 

 sides of rivers, margins of lakes, pools, and ponds; and it may also be 

 found growing on wet ground of a more or less marshy or boggy 

 character caused by an overflow of any of the former. 



The Marsh Forget-me-not, as it is also called, has long roots and 

 is stoloniferous, then erect, with branched, smooth or hairy, rounded, 

 solid stem, with spreading hairs. The leaves are stalkless, lance- 

 shaped, blunt, smooth, 

 and the first Latin name 

 refers to their shape or 

 texture, being like a 

 mouse's ear. 



The flowers are blue 

 or violet, stalked, and 

 form a scorpioid cyme, 

 with a smooth 5-lobed 

 calyx covered with closely- 

 pressed bristles or hairs, 

 with sub-equal, short, 

 blunt teeth, nearly as long- 

 as the corolla, and the 

 limb of the corolla twice 

 as long. The style equals 

 the calyx, and the lobes 

 of the corolla are notched 

 at the end. 



The stem is 2 ft. high 

 at most, and flowers are 



SCORPION GRASS (Myosotis scorpioides, L.) in bloom between April 



and August. The plant 



is a herbaceous perennial and propagated by division, being worth 

 cultivating. 



The pistil and stamens in the different species vary in position, 

 but the floral mechanism is similar to that of M. intermedia, in the 

 length of the tube, which is 3 mm. long. The corolla is salver-shaped 

 with a flat limb, and the mouth is closed by 5 scales or glands. The 

 anther-stalks are fixed in the neck of the tube; the anthers are oblong, 

 yellow, with a club-shaped tip, and are included. The style is as long 

 as the tube, and the stigma blunt. It is visited by the Common Blue 

 Butterfly (Lyctzna Icarus), and a fty,-Empis. 



The fruits are hooked and may catch in the coats of animals and 



