BORAGE FAMILY. Boraginaceae. 



BORAGE FAMILY. Boraginaceae. 



A large family, widely distributed, chiefly rough-hairy 

 herbs, without stipules; usually with alternate, toothless 

 leaves; flowers usually in coiled, one-sided clusters; calyx 

 usually with five sepals; corolla usually symmetrical, with 

 five united petals, often with crests or appendages in the 

 throat; stamens five, inserted in the tube of the corolla, 

 alternate with its lobes; ovary superior, with a single, 

 sometimes two-cleft, style, and usually deeply four-lobed, 

 like that of the Mint Family, forming in fruit four seed-like 

 nutlets. Mature fruit is necessary to distinguish the 

 different kinds. These plants superficially resemble some 

 of the Waterleaf Family, but the four lobes of the ovary are 

 conspicuous. 



There are many kinds of Lappula, chiefly of the north- 

 temperate zone; leaves narrow; corolla blue or white, 

 salver-form or funnel-form, with a very short tube, the 

 throat closed by five short scales, the stamens, with short 

 filaments, hidden in the tube; ovary deeply four-lobed; 

 style short; nutlets armed with barbed prickles, forming 

 burs, giving the common name, Stickseed, and the Latin 

 name, derived from "bur." Some of them resemble 

 Forget-me-nots, but are not true Myosotis. 



Though the foliage is harsh, this plant 

 is so graceful and has such pretty flowers 

 Ldppula ^ at ^ i s m st attractive. It is from ten 



subdecumbens to eighteen inches tall, with several 

 yellowish, hairy stems, springing from a 

 Perennial root and a cluster of root-leaves, 

 the stem-leaves more or less clasping at 

 base, all bluish-green, covered with pale hairs, with 

 prominent veins on the back and sparse bristles along the 

 edges. The flowers form handsome, large, loose clusters 

 and the hairy buds are tightly coiled. The calyx is hairy, 

 with blunt lobes, and the corolla, about half an inch across, 

 is pure white, or tinged with blue, often marked with blue, 

 with two ridges on the base of each petal, and the throat 

 closed by five yellow crests, surrounded by a ring of fuzzy . 

 white down. This grows on dry plains and hillsides, some- 

 times making large clumps. 



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