BORRAGINACEiE. • 51 9 



The one-sided and coiled apparent spikes or racemes straighten as the blossoms 

 develop : these sometimes scattered : bracts frequently wanting. Echium, an 

 Old World genus with irregular corolla and stamens, has not reached California 

 (although the common species is naturalized in the United States) : nor are there 

 any of the first and second tribes with fleshy or berry-like druijaceous fruit ; these 

 belonging mainly to tropical regions. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 48. 



A rather large order, of wide distribution, comprising between 60 and 70 genera, of no economi- 

 cal iniportauce, except that the roots of several yield a red dye, and those of Coinfrey were of re- 

 pute in popular medicine as a demulcent, while some, such as Heliotroi)cs and Forget-nie-nots, 

 are cultivated for ornament. Although the Californian genera are hardly more numerous than 

 those of the Atlantic States, the species are twice as many. 



As in the foregoing order, the scorpioid Hower-clusters are termed spikes or racemes, although 

 the flowers are not in the axils of the bracts, when these are present. 



EcHiDiocARYA AiiizoNiCA, Gray, a new genus of a single species from the middle of Arizona, 

 is doubtless wholly out of our range. The aspect of the plant is wholly that of an Eritrichiam : 

 but the nutlets are as it were stipitate and inflexed over the short free style, with the thick 

 and cartilaginous elongated bases or stalks united in pairs, the whole bearing some likeness to 

 four viper-heads. 



Tribe I. CORDlEiE. Style tenniual, once or twice forked ; the branches tipped with a 

 simple stigma. Ovary laterally 4-lobed or entire. Generally woody, ours herbaceous. 



1. Coldenia. Corolla-lobes imbricated or partly convolute in the bud. Style simply and deeply 



2-clelt. Fruit separating into 4 (or by abortion fewer) one-seeded diy nutlets. 



Tribe II. HELIOTROPIEjE. Style terminal, sometimes very short or none, entire : stigma 

 a fleshy ring or the margin of a disk, which is mostly surmounted by a conical appendage. 

 Ovary entire or laterally 2 - 4-lobed. Inflorescence unilateral. Herbs or sometimes 

 slnubby plants. 



2. Heliotropium. Corolla imbric^ated in the bud, with the sinuses plaited. Fruit splitting 



into 4 one-seeded or 2 two-celled and two-seeded nutlets. 



Tribe III. BORRAGEtE. Style central, entire or nearly so, terminated by a single stigma 

 or pair of stigmas destitute of any appendage, its base surrounded by the divisions of the 

 deeply 4-parted ovary, which in fruit are separate dry nutlets. Inflorescence mostly uni- 

 lateral and scorpioid. Herbs, rarely somewhat shrubby plants, commonly scabrous or 

 hispid. 



* Nutlets naked in the base of the equal and unchanged caljTC. 



-1- Nutlets fixed by their very base to a flat receptacle, erect ; the scar flat and rather small. 



3. Lithospermum. Nutlets bony. Flowers leafy-bracted. Corolla-lobes imbricated in the 



bud, as in all the following but No. 4. 



4. Myosotis. Nutlets thin-crustaceous, smooth. Inflorescence bractless. Corolla-lobes con- 



volute in the bud. 



HH +- Nutlets fixed by some part of the inner angle or face, either next the base or higher up, to 

 a conical, low-pyramidal, or more elevated receptacle (gjTiobase), 



++ Unarmed and except one species unappendaged, erect. 



5. Mertensia. Flowers violet or blue. Nutlets rather fleshy, becoming coriaceous. Smooth 



or soft-pubescent perennials. 



6. Amsinckia. Flowers bright yellow. Nutlets coriaceous or crustaceous, fixed above the 



base. Cotyledons 4, that is each of the pair 2-parted ! Bristly-hispid annuals. 



7. Eritrichium. Flowers in ours white. Nutlets coriaceous or cartilaginous, ovate or tri- 



angidar. Hirsute or hispid, mostly annuals. 



++ ++ Glochidiate or otherwise armed or prickly nutlets, becoming burs (sticking in the fleece or 

 hair of sheep and cattle) : calyx open or spreading in fruit : corolla blue or wliite. 



8. Echinospermum. Nutlets erect : the margin surrounded by barbed-tipped prickles. Flow- 



ers small, in partly hracted racciiics or s]uki.'s. Annuals (jV liicniiiids. 



9. Cynoglossum. Nutlets byconiin- drpirsscl, .,l,li,|uc ,,r li,,i i/.,Htal. all the back covered 



with short and stout barbcd-tipiJiMl bristles ur prirklrs, at maturity separating from the 

 receptacle from the base upwanls and hanging awhile from the style. Flowers larger, 

 in bractless panicled racemes. Ours perennial. 



