ITeliotropium.'] BORAGiNEiE. 235 



1. H. indicum, Linn.; Bot. Mag. t. 1837. A coarse erect hairy an- 

 nual, 1 to 2 ft. high, with spreading branches. Leave stalked, ovate or ovate- 

 cordate, 1| to 3 in. long, rough with stiff hairs. Flowers pale-blue or white, 

 in long terminal or leaf-opposed simple unilateral spikes. Calyx cleft to the 

 base. Corolla-tube about 1 line long, Fruit pyramidal or mitre-shaped ; the 

 2 carpels distinct almost from the base when ripe, each one containing 2 cells 

 with 1 seed in each cell. — HeliopJiytum indicum, DC. Prod. ix. 556. 



Waste places near the seashore, Champion. A species of uncertain origin, now a com- 

 mon weed throughout the tropics, hoth in the New and the Old World. 



3. BOTHRIOSPERMUM, Fisch. and Mey. 



Calyx deeply 5 -cleft. Corolla-tube cylindrical; the limb spreading, with 

 imbricate lobes ; the mouth of the tube closed by 5 very obtuse scales. An- 

 thers included in the tube. Ovary 4-lobed. Style veiy short, in the centre 

 of the lobes, with a capitate stigma. Fruit of 4 distinct nuts, erect and at- 

 tached by the base, convex and murieate or warted on the back, marked with 

 a cavity on the inner side. — Herbs, with the habit of a Myosotis, and very small 

 white or blue flowers. 



A genus of very few species, all natives of temperate or tropical Asia. 



1. B. tenellum, Fisch. and Mey.; DC. Prod. x. 116. A slender diffuse 

 much-branched annual or biennial, usually 6 to 8 in. long, more or less clothed 

 with appressed or spreading hairs. Leaves ovate or oblong, shortly stalked, 

 usually about \ in. long, the upper floral leaves smaller. Flowers very small, 

 white or pale blue, on short recurved pedicelsj in the axils of the leaves or a 

 little above. Corolla scarcely above 1 line long. Fruiting calyx growing 

 out to 1^- or even 2 lines long. 



A weed in rice-fields, Champion ; also Wright. Dispersed over various parts of India, ex- 

 tending southward to the Mauritius and northward to China and Mantchuria. 



Ouder LXXV. CONVOLVULACE^]. 



Sepals 5, persistent, distinct, and much imbricated or very rarely united in 

 a 5 -toothed calyx. Corolla usually regular, campanulate or funnel-shaped, or 

 rarely with a cylindrical tube or rotate; the limb 5 -folded, 5 -angled, or 5- 

 lobed. Stamens 5, alternate with the lobes or angles of the corolla and in- 

 serted in the tube, often of unequal length. Ovary usually free, entire, 2- to 

 4-celled, with 1 or 2 erect ovules in each cell, rarely divided into 2 Or 4 dis- 

 tinct uniovulate carpels, or 1 -celled, with 2 or 4 ovules. Style single or more 

 or less deeply divided into 2. Fruit either a capsule opening in 2 to 4 valves, 

 leaving the dissepiments attached to the axis, or opening transversely, or suc- 

 culent and indehiscent. Seeds with a small quantity of mucilaginous albumen 

 or without any. Cotyledons usually very much folded, rarely straight or im- 

 perceptible. — Herbs, often twining or parasitical, or rarely shrubs, woody 

 climbers or even trees. Inflorescence various, usually axillary and more or 

 less cymose. 



A considerable Order, widely spread over almost every part of the globe, but most abun- 

 dant in warm countries. 



