WASTES A^D ifAtSIDES IN SUMMER 



201 



bearing bright blue flowers from June to August. Its stem has 

 spreading branches, and tlie leaves are obovate, narrowing at the 

 base into the stalk. The upper leaves are narrower than the lower 

 ones, and have shorter petioles. The flowers are of a blue colour, 

 or sometimes almost white, and are di'ooping on rather long perlicels. 

 The segments of tlie corolla are spreading and very pointed; and 

 the dark anthers are very conspicuous in the centre of the flower. 



The two British Alkanets 

 {Anchusa) are interesting 

 plants, though not very com- 

 mon. They are coarse and 

 hairy, and bear large, blue, 

 bracteate flowers, dis- 

 tinguished by a deeply five- 

 cleft calyx ,- a corolla with 

 five spreading lobes, and a 

 straight tube closed at the 

 mouth by blunt, hairy 

 scales ; and five stamens 

 included within the tube. 

 The fruit consists of rather 

 large wrinkled nuts. 



One species, though 

 generally known as the Com- 

 mon Alkanet {Anchusa 

 officinalis), is really a rare 

 plant, occm-ring only as an 

 escape from cultivation in 

 the neighbourhood of towns 



and villages. It has an angular stem ; narrow leaves— the lower 

 ones very long, on long stalks, and the upper ones smaller ; and 

 forked, one-sided, spikes of sessile or shortly-stalked flowers of a 

 rich blue colour. The calyx is bristly, longer than the corolla, 

 and cleft into narrow divisions. This plant grows from one to two 

 feet high, and flowers during June and July. 



The other species — the Evergreen Alkanet {Anchusa semper- 

 virens) — is not uncommon in some southern and south-western 

 districts. It is a stout, very bristly plant, from one to two feet 

 high, with rather large, blue flowers in short, opposite spikes. It 

 is shown on Plate III. 



Our last flower of the Borage famil}^ is the Hound's-tongue 



The Guosiwell. 



