BORAGINACEAE BORAGE 705 



Genera of Boraginaceae . 



Ovary not lobed Heliotropium 



Ovary deeply 4-lobed. 

 Flowers regular. 



Nutlets horizontally radiate, covered with prickles Cynoglossum 



Nutlets erect, armed with prickles Lappula 



Corolla irregular. 



Stamens exserted Echium 



Heliotropium (Tourn.) L. Heliotrope 



Herbs or shrubs with entire alternate leaves; the small blue or white 

 flowers, scattered or borne in scorpoid spikes; corolla salver or funnelform 

 without appendages, more or less plaited in the bud; stamens not exserted, 

 with nearly sessile anthers; stigmas conical or capitate; fruit 2-4-lobed, sep- 

 arating into 4, 1 -seeded nutlets or into 2, 2-seeded carpels. 



About 115 species, mostly tropical. The best known representative in the 

 North is the cultivated H. peruvianum. The seaside heliotrope (H. curassav- 

 icum) occurs in saline soil along the Atlantic coast, to Maine, and from Mexico 

 to Illinois and westward. 



Heliotropium indicum L. Indian Heliotrope 



An erect, hairy annual with hirsute or hispid stem; leaves petioled, ovate 

 or oval and somewhat heart-shaped; flowers blue, borne in spikes; fruit deeply 

 2-lobed, smooth, 2 seeds in each cell. 



Distribution. Common in waste places from North Carolina to Southern 

 Indiana and Missouri. Naturalized from India. 



Heliotropium europaeum L. European Heliotrope 



An erect annual, branched, roughish pubescent herbs; leaves oval, long 

 petioled, narrow at the base; flowers borne in 1-sided bractless spikes, the ter- 

 minal spikes in pairs; calyx spreading, the segments shorter than the corolla 

 tube; anthers distinct, obtuse. 



Distribution. Common in waste places southward. New York to Pennsyl- 

 vania and Florida. 



Poisonous properties. The European heliotrope contains heliotropin, a bitter, 

 volatile, alkaline, poisonous alkaloid. 



Cynoglossum (Tourn.) L. Hound's Tongue 



Hirsute or hispid, rarely smooth herbs ; alternate or entire leaves ; purple, 

 blue or white flowers in panicled racemes; calyx 5-cleft or 5-parted; corolla 

 funnelform or salverform, the throat clothed with 5 obtuse scales; ovary 

 deeply 4-lobed fixed near the apex to the base of the style, roughened with 

 short barbed or hooked prickles. About 75 species, of wide distribution. 



Cynoglossum officinale L. Hound's Tongue 



A coarse biennial herb, clothed with short, soft hairs ; lower leaves oblong 

 or oblong lanceolate, the upper closely sessile with a slightly heart-shaped 

 base; racemes nearly bractless, elongated in fruit; divisions of the calyx ovate, 

 lanceolate, acute; corolla reddish-purple, rarely white; nutlets flat on the broad 

 upper face, splitting away at maturity. 



