206 BORAGINACEAE. 



301. LAPPULA. 



Annual, biennial or perennial rough-hairy herbs; flowers small, 

 in racemes or spikes; calyx 5-parted, reflexed or open in fruit; 

 corolla short-salverform or somewhat funnelform, white or blue, 

 the throat closed with prominent appendages (fornices) ; nutlets 

 attached by some part of the inner angle or face to the gynobase, 

 armed either along a distinct margin or more or less over the whole 

 back with backwardly-barbed prickles. 



Annuals; scar of the nutlets linear. 



Lateral prickles of the fruit united. L. cupulata. 



Lateral prickles of the fruit free. L. occidentalis. 



Perennials; scar of the nutlets triangular or ovate. 



Lateral prickles of the fruit free to the base or nearly so. L. diffusa. 

 Lateral prickles of the fruit united for half their length. 



Corolla blue, the lobes narrowest at base. L. ciliala. 



Corolla greenish, the lobes broadest at base. L. hispida. 



Lappula cupulata (Gray) Rydb. Annual, erect, loosely branched, 15-50 

 cm. high, hispid-pubescent throughout; leaves all sessile, linear, obtuse, 1-3 

 cm. long; racemes becoming very loose and elongated, leafy-bracteate ; pedicels 

 stout, shorter than the calyx; corolla very small, white or blue, its tube barely 

 as long as the calyx; nutlets convex on the back, granular-roughened, the 

 margins with a border of united prickles, thus forming a shallow cup; ventral 

 face convex, covered with whitish tubercles; scar long and narrow, nearly as 

 long as the nutlet. Along Snake River. 



Lappula occidentalis (Wats.) Rydb. Very similar to L. cupulata; the 

 flowers white or pale blue; marginal prickles of the nutlets separate or barely 

 united at base. Frequent in gravelly or sandy soil. 



Lappula diffusa (Lehm.) Greene. Perennial, 40-90 cm. high, erect or 

 nearly so, branched, the pubescence rather sparse and not harsh; leaves 8-15 

 cm. long, spatulate to oblong-lanceolate, the lowest petioled, the upper sessile 

 and broader; racemes panicled, spreading, becoming loose; pedicels 6-10 mm. 

 long, becoming reflexed; corolla blue, rotate, the tube shorter than the limb; 

 nutlets triangular-ovate, 4-6 mm. long, obscurely keeled, scabrous on the 

 back, the marginal flat prickles separate. In the Blue Mountains. 



Lappula ciliata (Dougl.) Greene. Perennial, the whole plant appressed- 

 canescent and bristly hirsute; stems 20-30 cm. high; leaves mostly basal, 

 linear-lanceolate, 5-12 cm. long; inflorescence a panicle of loosely flowered 

 racemes; corolla bright blue, rotate, 5-10 mm. broad; nutlets 5 mm. long, 

 rough on the back, the marginal prickles united for about half their length. 

 Common about Spokane in gravelly soil. 



Lappula hispida (Gray) Greene. Stems erect, 30-50 cm. high, the herbage 

 green but rough hispid with stout spreading often papillose-based hairs; 

 Bowers greenish white in loose racemes; nutlets 5 mm. broad, the marginal 

 prickles narrow, 3-4 mm. long, the back bearing glochidiate bristles; inner 

 face smooth. In the Blue Mountains, rare. 



302. MERTENSIA. Bluebells. 



( .ltbrous or pubescent perennial herbs; flowers blue or rarely 

 white, mostly bractless, in panicled racemes or in corymbs; calyx 



