BORRAGINACE.fi. (BORAGE FAMILY.) 323 



throat : filaments equalling or longer than the oblong or somewhat arrow-shaped 

 anthers. Style long and thread-form. Nutlets ovoid, fleshy when fresh, smooth 

 or wrinkled, obliquely attached next the base by a prominent internal angle ; the 

 scar small. Smooth ! or soft-hairy perennial herbs, with pale and entire leaves, 

 and handsome purplish-blue (rarely white) flowers, in loose and short panicled 

 or corymbed racemes, only the lower ones leafy-bracted : pedicels slender. 

 (Named for Prof. Mertens, an early German botanist.) 



1. Corolla perfectly naked in the throat; the broad trumpet-mouthed limb slightly 5 

 lobed : filaments slender, much longer than the anthers. 



1. M. Virginica, DC. (VIRGINIAN COWSLIP or LUNGWORT.) Very 

 smooth, pale, erect (l-2 high) ; leaves thin, obovate, veiny, those of the root 

 (4' -6' long) petioled; corolla trumpet-shaped, 1' long, many times exceeding 

 the calyx, rich purple-blue, rarely white. (Pulmonaria Virginica, L.) Allu- 

 vial banks, W. New York to Wisconsin, Virginia, Kentucky, and southward. 

 May. Cultivated for ornament. 



2. Corolla with 5 glandular folds or appendages at the throat ; the limb more deeply 

 lobed : filaments shorter and fiat. 



2. M. maritima, Don. (SEA LUNGWORT.) Spreading or decumbent, 

 smooth, glaucous ; leaves fleshy, ovate or obovate, the upper surface becoming pa- 

 pillose ; corolla bell-fnnnel-form, twice the length of the calyx (3" long) ; nutlets 

 smooth, flattened. Sea-coast, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Russell), Maine ? and 

 northward. (Eu.) 



3. M. panicnlata, Don. Roughish and more or less hairy, erect (l-2 

 high), loosely branched; leaves ovate and ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, thin; co- 

 rolla somewhat funnel-form, 3-4 times the length of the hairy calyx (' long) ; 

 nutlets rough-wrinkled when dry. (Probably also M. pilosa, DC.) Shore of 

 Lake Superior, and northward. 



7. MYOSOTIS, L. SCORPION-GRASS. FORGET-ME-NOT. 



Corolla salver-form, the tube about the length of the 5-toothed or 5-cleft calyx, 

 the throat with 5 small and blunt arching appendages opposite the rounded 

 lobes ; the latter convolute in the bud ! Stamens included, on very short fila- 

 ments. Nutlets smooth, compressed, fixed at the base ; the scar minute. Low 

 and mostly soft-hairy herbs, with entire leaves, those of the stem sessile, and 

 with small flowers in naked racemes, which are entirely bractless, or occasion- 

 ally with one or two small leaves next the base, prolonged and straightened 

 in fruit. (Name composed of /uvs, mouse, and ovs, O>TOS, ear, in allusion to the 

 aspect of the short and soft leaves in some species : one popular name is 

 MOUSE-EAR.) 



* Calyx open in fruit, its hairs appressed, none*of them hooked nor glandular. 



1. Itt. palustris, With. (TRUE FORGET-ME-NOT.) Stems ascending 

 from an obliquely creeping base (9' -20' high), loosely branched, smoothish ; 

 leaves rough-pubescent, oblong-lanceolate or linear-oblong; calyx moderately 

 5-cleft, shorter than the spreading pedicels ; corolla (rather large in the genuine 

 plant) pale blue with a yellow eye. 1J. Cultivated occasionally. Varies into 



