THE HIGHER DICOTYLEDONS. 345 



Field Scorpion-grass (M. arvensis), which grows on 

 hedge-banks, in waste and cultivated fields, and on the edges 

 of woods, and flowers from May to August. It is usually 

 annual, but sometimes biennial, and has a straggling stem, 

 usually branched at the base and often a foot long, and 

 hairy oblong leaves of which only the lowest are stalked. 

 Each branch usually ends in a long inflorescence, bearing 

 stalked flowers ; the stems and flower- stalks are covered with 

 hairs, like the leaves. 



The inflorescence is coiled, but as the flowers open it 

 uncoils, and all the flowers on opening face in the same direc- 

 tion. The flower is regular, pale blue, and about 4mm. in 

 diameter. The calyx is bell- shaped, cleft halfway down into 

 five narrow lobes, bearing hooked hairs. The corolla has a 

 short tube and a spreading and rather concave limb with five 

 rounded lobes ; at the mouth of the tube there are five notched 

 scales, one opposite each lobe, which nearly closes the mouth. 

 The stamens are inside the corolla-tube, just below the ring 

 of scales ; they have very short filaments. The ovary is 

 four-lobed, like that of the Dead-nettle, but the short style 

 ends in a small spherical stigma, which just reaches the 

 mouth of the corolla-tube. 



The flowers are pollinated by flies and bees. The honey, 

 secreted by a gland at the base of the ovary, is protected 

 from rain by the scales which narrow the entrance and also 

 protect the pollen, so that the shortest-tongued insects are 

 excluded. The ring of scales also serves as a honey- guide. 



The fruit splits into four akenes, and while these are 

 ripening the calyx-lobes curve inwards. The akenes are 

 shaken out by wind, and the hooked hairs covering the calyx 

 probably bring about dispersal by animals as well. 



There are three other common species of Myosotis in Britain, of 

 which two grow in dry places and one in wet places ; the former are 

 hairy and the latter hairless a general rule among plants, though 

 with some exceptions. The Changing or Yellow-and-blue Scor- 

 pion-grass (M. verticolor) is a common annual in fields and waste 

 places, with a rosette of sessile radical leaves and a few erect ones 

 along the stem ; firs. (April-June) about 3 mm. diameter, at first yellow 

 then changing to blue, corolla-tube relatively long, akenes black. 

 Early Scorpion-grass 'J\f. collina) is a low and much-branched 

 annual, flowering in early summer and soon dying ; flrs. bright blue 

 with short C-tube ; calyx wide open in f rui t, akenes brown. Water 



