BORAGE FAMILY. Boraginaccac. 



There are a good many kinds of Mertensia, natives of 

 the northern hemisphere. They are handsome perennials, 

 never very hairy and sometimes perfectly smooth all over, 

 with leafy stems and broad leaves, sometimes dotted, the 

 lower ones with leaf-stalks. The pretty, nodding flowers 

 are in clusters and have a purple, blue, or white corolla, 

 often turning pink, more or less trumpet-shaped, the lobes 

 not spreading much, the throat open, with or without 

 crests; the ovary deeply four-lobed, with a threadlike 

 style and one stigma; the nutlets wrinkled. These plants 

 are all commonly called Lungwort. 



A very attractive and graceful moun- 

 Lungwort tain plant, with pretty flowers and fine 



Mertensia Sibirica foliage. The stems are hollow and usually 

 Blue smooth, from one to five feet tall, and the 



Summer leaves are rather thin and soft in texture, 



Northwest , 4I , ,, 



usually smooth, with a bloom. The 



flowers are in handsome loose clusters, most of them 

 drooping, and have a corolla over half an inch long, which 

 is a beautiful shade of bright light blue, often tinged with 

 pink, with white crests in the throat, and the style is long 

 and protruding. The buds are bright pink, contrasting 

 well with the blue flowers. This grows near streams, in the 

 higher mountains. It is often called Mountain Bluebell, 

 but that name belongs to Campanula and is therefore 

 misleading. (This has recently been "separated" into 

 several species.) 



This is an attractive plant and looks 

 Lungwort 



Mertensia a gd deal like a Forget-me-not. It 



brevisiyla grows from four to ten inches tall and has 



Blue dull bluish-green leaves, which are downy 



o? m Wyo n the Upper Side and smooth on the under ' 

 and graceful clusters of pretty little flowers. 



The buds are pinkish-purple and the flowers are small, 

 with hairy calyxes and brilliant sky-blue corollas, the 

 stamens and style not protruding. This grows in mountain 

 canyons, up to an altitude of seven thousand feet. 



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