THE BORAGE. 23 



key, we find that in the Italian tongue borra, in the 

 French bourra, signify short hair or wool, both words 

 probably being derived from the low Latin burra, a flock 

 of wool. As the plant is in an especial degree thickly 

 clothed with short hairs, so thickly, indeed, as to give it 

 almost a downy, or at other times a frosted look when 

 the light catches on their silvery tint, this last explanation 

 of the meaning of the word is, without doubt, the correct 

 one. 



The plant is rather spreading in growth, and rarely 

 attains to more than a foot or so in height. The leaves 

 are somewhat lanceolate in form, and very rough in 

 texture. The flowers are large, and of a brilliant blue, a 

 feature that tends to render them additionally attractive, 

 as we have very few plants that are purely blue. Crimson 

 flowers are common, yellow flowers are especially abundant, 

 but the azure blue of heaven is suggested by but few of 

 our blossoms. The corolla is composed of five sharply- 

 pointed members, and when fully expanded is quite flat ; 

 all the parts are in one plane, as in the pimpernel and 

 some few other flowers. The stamens are very dark purple, 

 so dark as to appear almost black, and form a very pro- 

 minent and projecting conical mass in the centre of the 

 flower. There is a curious ring of slightly-projecting 

 scales at their base. The calyx, like all the rest of the 

 plant, with the exception of the corolla, is thickly clothed 

 with hairs, and is deeply cut into five long and narrow 

 segments. The flowers grow on a long curving stem, the 

 buds drooping, but the expanded blossoms often growing 

 so that instead of the general plane of the flower being, as 

 it is in most plants, more or less parallel to the ground, 

 it is perpendicular to it. A comparison in the reader's 



