228 BORAGO. [""-ASS v. 



readily distinguished, and is, perhaps, more frequent than is at present 

 known; it is also found in the mountainous districts of Germany, Italy, 

 and France. 



GENUS V. BORA'GO. LINN. Borage. 

 Nat. Ord. BORAGIN'E^E. DE CAND. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx five cleft. Corolla wheel-shaped, the limb of 

 five mostly spreading segments, the orifice of the tube closed with 

 five obtuse emarginate scales. Name from cor, the heart ; and 

 ago, to affect ; formerly written Coraffe, because it was supposed 

 to comfort the heart and spirits. 



1 . B. officin'alis, Linn. ( Fig. 297.) common Borage. The lower leaves 

 obovate, tapering at the base, segments of the corolla ovate, acute, 

 spreading, those of the calyx lanceolate. 



English Botany, t. 36. English Flora, vol. i. p. 263. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 100. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 164. 



jRooftapering. The whole plant clothed with rough hairs, those of the 

 stem pointed downwards. Stem from one to two feet high, round? 

 succulent, mostly much branched. Leaves alternate, irregularly 

 toothed or crenated ; the lower obovate, obtuse, tapering at the base, on 

 long footstalks, the upper becoming narrower, nearly lanceolate, sessile, 

 or on short footstalks, winged at the base. Jnjlorescence racemose; 

 large and numerous. Flowers on drooping peduncles, elongated by 

 age. Calyx of five linear lanceolate segments, very hairy, spreading 

 with the corolla until after flowering. Corolla wheel-shaped, the limb 

 large, of five ovate acute brilliant blue spreading segments, the tube 

 short, its orifice surrounded with five short obtuse notched valves, some- 

 tiroes awl-shaped. Stamens five, on short dilated f laments. Anthers 

 large, awl-shaped, notched, converging together with the scales in a 

 cone-shaped manner over the mouth of the tube. Pistil as long as the 

 stamens. Stigma obtuse. Fruit four, ovate. Nuts depressed at the 

 base, rough or tuberculated, inclosed in the converging calyx. 



Habitat. Rubbish and waste places, not unfrequent. Supposed to 

 be naturalised. 



Biennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This, the type of the natural order Boragin'eae, is a highly orna- 

 mental plant, from the great abundance of beautiful flowers that it 

 bears ; it appears to have been considered of much greater value as a 

 medicinal plant in former times than at present, and obtained a 

 place in the ranks of pharmacopseial remedies as a refrigerant, and 

 is, I believe, still used in some countries as a syrup in pleurisies and 

 inflammatory fevers ; but in this country its principal use appears to 



