Borraginacece Omphalodes. 325 



8. OMPHALODES. 



Annual or perennial herbs, distinguished by the 4 nuts being 

 furnished with a membranous inflexed wing or border which 

 renders them cup-shaped. There are several species from 

 Southern Europe and Western Asia. The name is from o//-<a\os, 

 the navel, and elSos, form or shape, the resemblance of the 

 nuts. 



1. 0. verna. Venus's Navel wort. A handsome and early- 

 flowering herbaceous perennial with creeping branches and 

 ascending flowering shoots about 6 inches high. Lower leaves 

 cordate, on long slender petioles, glabrescent, upper narrower. 

 Flowers blue, about half an inch in diameter, in loose racemes, 

 appearing in March and April. South of Europe. 



2. 0. linifolia. A glaucous annual about a foot high with 

 narrow leaves and long racemes of white flowerp tinged with 

 blue. A native of Portugal. 



Cynoglossum is a neighbouring genus whose species have 

 ample foliage, blue, purple or reddish flowers, followed by 

 large shortly stalked prickly nuts. C. officinale has dull red 

 flowers, and G. montanum bluish flowers ; neither is very 

 common in Britain. 



Lindelqfia spectdbilis, syn. Cynoglossum longi/lorum, is a 

 neat-growing perennial about a foot high with oblong leaves 

 and racemes of showy blue flowers. It is from North India, 

 and flowers towards the end of Spring. 



9. HELIOTROPIUM. 



Herbs or undershrubs with alternate petiolate leaves and 

 lateral or terminal circinate cymes of small blue or white 

 flowers. Corolla funnel- or salver-shaped, with a plicate limb. 

 It differs from all the preceding genera in having the nuts 

 consolidated, but eventually separating, and 1 -seeded. There 

 is one European species, and several others from the warmer 

 and tropical parts of both the Old and New Worlds. The 

 name is from r/Xtoy, the sun, and TpoTrr), a turning, in allusion 

 probably to the form of their inflorescence. 



1. H. Peruvianum. Turnsole or Cherry-pie. This tender 

 dwarf shrub is so well known that description would be super- 

 fluous. The agreeable scent of its lilac or dark blue flowers 

 forms its principal recommendation. There are now many 



