362 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 



* Comfrey (SYMPHYTUM), * Borage (BORAGO), * Vi- 

 per's Bugloss (ECHIUM) and * Hound's tongue (CYNO- 

 GLOSSUM) are English plants belonging to this family. 



An Indian species of the last, C. FURCATUM, Wall., 

 is very common both on the plains and on the hills. 

 It is not unlike the Forget-me-not, and takes its name 

 from the long often bifurcating branches which bear the 

 flowers. The nutlets are covered with hooked spines. 



ACANTHACE^: 



Examples : 



RUELLIA PROSTRATA, Lamk., a herb with perennial 

 rootstock and weak procumbent branches bent at the 

 nodes. Leaves without stipules, opposite, petioled, 

 ovate, entire, herbaceous, with a few hairs. 



Flowers on short pedicles in the axils of leaves. 

 Bracteoles two ; sepals five, linear ; corolla purple, about 

 one inch long, tubular, narrow at the base, broader 

 above, with five nearly equal lobes which are twisted 

 in bud. Stamens four, didynamous, the anthers equal. 

 Ovary superior, two-celled, with many ovules on axile 

 placentas. Style terminal on the ovary, linear. Fruit 

 a capsule, solid at the base, broader above ; seeds 

 flat on thick hard funicles. If the tip of the capsule 

 be wetted when quite ripe, it bursts open suddenly, 

 and by the pressure of the hard funicles the seeds 

 are shot out. They then appear to be on parietal 

 placentas, but in reality the septum dividing the ovary 

 splits, one-half with its attached seeds going to each 

 valve, which represents not a carpel, but two-half 

 carpels. In water the outermost layer of the seed 



