Lithospermum. BORRAGINACE^. 203 



Var. macrosperma, Chapm. Taller, looser, often a foot high : pedicels rather 

 more spreading: flowers larger: the calyx sometimes 3 lines long, with lower calyx-lobes 

 twice the length of the upper : nutlets larger in proportion. — Fl. 333. M. macrosperma, 

 Engelm. 1. c. M. versicolor, Lehm. in Hook. Fl. ii. 81. — Florida to Texas : also W. Idaho, 

 Oregon, and British Columbia ; sometimes passing into the typical form. 



17. LITHOSPi&RMUM, Tourn. Gromwell. (From lidog, a stone, 

 aud an^Q^a, seed.) — Chiefly herbs ; with reddish roots, sessile leaves, and axillary 

 or subaxillary or leafy -bracted flowers, developed in spring and summer, sometimes 

 dimorphous as to length of style and height of insertion of anthers reciprocally. 

 Calyx 5-parted. Stamens in our species with very short filaments. Stigma com- 

 monly single and truncate-capitate, sometimes as in § 3, capitate-2-lobed ; in L. 

 orvense there is a pair of stigmas below a slender bifid apex, a transition toward 

 the mode in Heliotropiece. 



§ 1. Annuals, with small at length widely scattered flowers : corolla white or 

 whitish, little longer than the calyx. 



L. ARVENSE, L. Slightly canescent with minute appressed hairs : stem loosely branching 

 from the base, erect, a span to 2 feet high : leaves linear or lanceolate, with prominent 

 midrib and obsolete lateral ribs : corolla f unnelform, about 3 lines long ; the throat with 

 puberulent lines : nutlets dull, coarsely wrinkled and pitted, brownish. — Spec. 132 ; Fl. 

 Dan. t. 456; Engl. Bot. 123. — Waste sandy grounds, not rare from Canada southward. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



L. Matamorense, DC. Hirsute or hispid : stems much branched from the base and 

 diffusely spreading, slender : leaves oblong, very obtuse (an inch or so long), at length 

 rough : pedicels very short : corolla almost campanulate, 2 lines long, a prominent trans- 

 verse crest at base of each lobe: nutlets at length shining but usually brownish and 

 uneven, also coarsely pitted. — Prodr. x. 76. L. prostratum, Buckley in Proc. Acad. Philad. 

 1861. — Plains and river-banks, Texas, Berlandier, Wright, &c. 



§ 2. Perennials, with small or rather small flowers : corolla greenish-white or 

 pale yellow, short ; its tube hardly if at all longer than the calyx : mature nutlets 

 bony, white and polished. 



* Corolla with intruded crests in the throat: flowers sparse, or at least the fruits scattered : nutlets 

 apt to be solitary. 



-i— Pubescence soft, fine, and short, only the upper face of the leaves becoming scabrous. 



L. OFFICINALE, L. Copiously branching, 2 or 3 feet high : leaves lanceolate or ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, acute, pale (2 inches or less long) ; a pair of lateral ribs more or less manifest: 

 tube of the dull-white corolla considerably longer than the limb : style nearly equalling 

 the stamens : nutlets less than 2 lines long. — Engl. Bot. t. 134 ; Fl. Dan. t. 1034. — Road- 

 sides, Canada and New England. (Nat. from Eu.) 



L. latifolitim, Michx. More sparingly and loosely branched : leaves greener, ovate 

 and broadly oblong-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, all acute and the lower tapering at 

 base (2 to 6 inches long), with 2 to 4 pairs of ribbed veins : tube of the corolla little longer 

 than the limb : style shorter than the stamens : nutlets globose-ovate, over 2 lines long. — 

 Fl. i. 131 ; Jacq. Eclog. t. 1.36. L. officinale, var. latifolium, Willd., &c. — Open ground and 

 borders of thickets, Upper Canada to Wisconsin and south to Virginia and Tennessee. 

 Flowers yellowish-white, or sometimes light yellow, when it is L. lutescens of N. Coleman 

 in Cat. PI Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1874, 29. 



-(— -I— Pubescence hispid or rough-hirsute. 



L. tuberosum, Rugel. Stem at first low, in age often more than 2 feet high, with some 

 spreading branches : leaves ovate or oblong-lanceolate, or the large radical ones obovate- 

 oblong, mostly obtuse ; the upper triple-ribbed, the others nervose-veined ; bristles of the 

 upper and even of the lower face at length with pustulate base : flowers short-pedicelled : 

 corolla "yellowish-white," 2 or 3 lines long: nutlets globular, much shorter than the at 



