234 ' BLUE TO PURPLE 



blossoms, and as it grows at extremely high altitudes, where 

 flowers of any kind are rather rare and large showy ones almost 

 unknown, the Mountain Phacelia is a real treasure-trove to the 

 traveller. It has a very strong disagreeable odour. 



FALSE FORGET-ME-NOT 



Echinosperrnum floribundum. Borage Family 



Stems: soft-hirsute, rather strict. Leaves: oblong to Hnear, entire, ses- 

 sile. Flowers: in numerous racemes, nearly erect, densely flowered; 

 corolla funnel-form, five-lobed. Fruit : nutlets keeled, papillose-tubercu- 

 late on the back, the margins armed with a single row of flat subulate 

 prickles. 



There have probably been more arguments between travel- 

 lers over these flowers than over any other plant that grows 

 in the mountain regions. Ninety-nine persons out of every 

 hundred will gather the lovely sky-blue blossoms, delighting 

 in their beauty and inhaling with joy the dehcate fragrance 

 of their perfume, under the firm conviction that it is the 

 True Forget-me-not they are picking ; whereas — alas for 

 the shattering of a pretty romance ! — it is only the sweet- 

 scented blossoms of the False Forget-me-not they are gath- 

 ering, which have as usual practised a successful deception 

 upon the unwary. 



The False Forget-me-not may, in reality, be easily dis- 

 tinguished from the True species by a very simple fact, 

 which, once understood and noted, will never again be over- 

 looked. When in fruit the False species bears numerous 

 nutlets covered with prickles, in fact tiny burs, which give 

 it the common name of Stickseed, and certainly these little 

 seeds do stick, and stick very fast indeed, to the clothing of 

 persons and the fur of passing animals. The True Forget- 

 me-not has no burs. 



The stems and long narrow leaves of the Echinospermum 

 floribtindtim are covered with a slight soft down. It grows 



