198 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



entire as we gather them, while those of the latter 

 are mostly bell-shaped or funnel-shaped, as in the 

 common comfrey, whose clusters of white or 

 purple bells, and large rough leaves, are so frequent 

 in ditches. 



"I know it well," said Henry, "for Mary has 

 sent me into many a ditch to gather it. Viper's 

 bugloss has leaves still rougher and more prickly, 

 and pretty bell-shaped flowers, and I remember 

 mamma said it was related to comfrey. Both these 

 plants have just the same trick as the jessamine of 

 dropping their blossoms unexpectedly." 



" True ; and so have gromwell, alkanet, hound's- 

 tongue, borage, and the various kinds of scorpion- 

 grass, one of which is the true ' forget-me-not.' " 



Mary inquired why that beautiful and innocent 

 flower is called scorpion-grass ; and she found that 

 the shape of the flowering stem, which curls round 

 at the top like a scorpion's tail, has given it the 

 name, in the same way that the soft and downy 

 leaves of most of the plants of the same family 

 have given the title of Myosotis, or mouse-ear. 



But her father now began to speak of a tribe 

 which is very easy to be known, because all its 

 flowers are LABIATE or lipped (that is, the two 



