Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 285 

 BORAGE FAMILY (Boraginaceae). 



A family of herbs with rough stems and leaves and 

 perfect flowers, regular except in the case of Bchium. 



FORGET-ME-NOT (Myosotis scorpioides) (EURO- 

 PEAN) Doubtless this pretty little plant is familiar 

 by name, at least, to all my readers. Besides its own 

 peculiar charms it has a great many legendary and 

 poetical associations connected with it. It has also 

 been a favorite flower for painters the world over. 



Forget-me-not is a common wild flower in Europe 

 and Asia, but is not indigenous in this country. It 

 does, however, appear as an escape and is fairly well 

 established in Nova Scotia, New England, New York 

 and southwards. The stem is rather stout but weak, 

 it rise about a foot in height, and is smooth but the 

 leaves are rough and hairy. The flowers are borne in 

 one-sided curving terminal clusters. The five, broad, 

 rounded petals are sky-blue with a yellow eye; the 

 undeveloped buds are pink. The generic name was 

 given because one of the species has soft leaves shap- 

 ed like mouse ears. The specific name refers to the 

 curved tendency of the flower stalk containing the 

 buds, it being curved after the fashion of a scor- 

 pion's tail. There are several species of Myosotis, 

 the present one having the largest and most beauti- 

 ful flowers. 



WILD COMFREY (Cynoglossum virginianum) is a 

 common, rough-stemmed perennial growing in decid- 

 uous woods from Me. to Mich, and southwards. The 

 tubular corolla is pale blue; it is &et in a five-parted 

 hairy calyx. The basal leaves are large and ovate; 

 the stem ones clasp the flower stalk with somewhat 

 heart-shaped bases. The fruit succeeding the flow- 

 ers, is composed of four very bristly nutlets. 



