BORAGINE^E 361 



style terminal, with two long linear stigmatic branches. 

 Fruit a small drupe, containing one seed only with 

 very sticky flesh, the radicle pointing upwards. 



CHARACTERS OF THE BORAGINE^ 



The family of BORAGINE^E is a large one, and found 

 in all parts of the world. It includes herbs, shrubs 

 and trees, and the plants are nearly always rough 

 with coarse hairs on the branches and leaves. 



The inflorescence is usually a scorpioid cyme, the 

 flowers being on the outer side of an axis, the end of 

 which is coiled up in bud. The corolla is sympetal- 

 ous, the numbers of the lobes of calyx or corolla, and 

 of stamens being the same and generally five. The ovary 

 is superior, four-lobed, with four ovules whose micro- 

 pyles point upwards. The style, which has a capitate 

 or a two-fid stigma, generally rises from between the 

 four lobes of the ovary, these lobes separating in fruit 

 from the central axis, or 'carpophore', as one-sided 

 nutlets. The fruit, therefore, is a typical * schizocarp ' 

 (p. 241). 



According as the nutlets are attached to the carpo- 

 phore along the whole inner edge, or at the top, middle 

 or bottom only, of each, so is the scar on the nutlet, 

 and these differences are used to distinguish the genera. 



* HELIOTROPIUM PERUVIANUM, L. is the well-known 

 Heliotrope or Cherry-pie, grown so much in gardens 

 on the hills. The flower is very similar to that 

 of H. INDICUM, L., and is typical of the family. 

 Another very typical plant is the true * Forget-me-not 

 (MYOSOTIS PALUSTRIS, L.) which, with other species, 

 is often cultivated in gardens. 



