247 



PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



87. MYOSOTIS. Scorpion-grass. 



Linn.Gen.73. Jiiss. \3l. Fl. Br. 212. Dill. Gen. 99. t. 3. Lam. 

 t.9l. Gcertn. t. 68.. 



Nat. Ord. AsperifoliiB. Linn. 4 1 . Boraginece. Juss. 42. Nine 

 following genera, the same. See Gyavimar 102. 



[Professor Schrader, in a small treatise on the Asperifoli^e, 

 gives their natural characters as follows : 



Moot simple or branched, perpendicular, sometimes oblique, 

 very rarely creeping. Siem herbaceous, rarely shrubby; 

 branches alternate, axillary. Leaves for the most part 

 alternate, entire, sometimes wavy, or broadly toothed, 

 more or less bristly, like the rest of the herb ; their bristles 

 proceeding each from a small prominence finally be- 

 coming callous; very rarely seated on a tubercle. Flowers 

 alternate, with or without bracteas, mostly forming a uni- 

 lateral duster, at first spirally revolute, afterwards elon- 

 gated; the partial stalks enlarged as the seeds ripen. 

 Bracteas, if present, solitary, generally lateral, more or 

 less leafy, permanent. Calyx, except in Cerinthe, of 1 leaf, 

 more or less deej^ly 5-cleft, very seldom merely 5 -toothed; 

 the segments or teeth generally a little unequal ; perma- 

 nent, enlarged after flowering, and in some instances 

 altered in shape. Corolla inferior, of 1 petal, 5-cleft, the 

 segments mostly equal ; the mouth either completely, or 

 imperfectly, closed with convex hollow valves ; or beset 

 with swellings, or plaits, or dense hairs; or entirely naked 

 and pervious. Stamens from the interior part of the tube, 

 seldom from the mouth, alternate with the segments of 

 the limb, and equal to them in number; anthers of 2 

 cells, distinct, very seldom attached to each other. Ger- 

 mens 4, very rarely (in Cerinthe) 2 only, distinct, seated 

 on a fleshy or glandular receptacle, subsequently enlarged, 

 and supporting the ripe fruit. Style 1, from the disk be- 

 tween the germens, permanent; and terminating in a 

 generally undivided stigma. Fruit as many close capsules 

 {achenia) as there are germens, various in substance, each 

 furnished, in some instances, with an umbilical depression, 

 from which proceeds the strophiolum, or crest, hardly oc- 

 curring but where that depression exists, and which is 

 whitish and flesh}-, occupying the whole cavity ; but be- 



