BORAGE FAMILY 



BORAGINACEAE 



NDIAN HELIOTROPE 



Heliotropium indicum L. 



The Indian Heliotrope is an annual which was introduced 

 into America from India and is now widely distributed in waste 

 places in warm regions as far north as North Carolina, Kentucky, 



Illinois and Missouri. 

 The hairy stem is 1-3 

 feet high and more or 

 less branched. The lower 

 leaves are alternate but 

 the upper sometimes ap- 

 pear to be opposite as 

 shown. 



The curved i-sided 

 spike becomes y6 inches 

 long and produces flow- 

 ers continuously from 

 May to November. One 

 may frequently find ripe 

 fruits at the base of the 

 spike, flowers along the 

 middle and buds at 

 the tip. The 5 green 

 calyx lobes are lanceolate and considerably shorter than the 

 corolla tube. The corolla has a blue cylindrical tube and a spread- 

 ing limb that is slightly 5-lobed. Within the tube and attached 

 to its sides are 5 stamens with very short filaments. Unlike most 

 members of the Borage family, the ovary is not lobed and the 

 style is very short and falls off before the fruit is mature. The 

 fruit becomes deeply 2-lobed as it matures and each lobe final- 

 ly splits into 1 single-seeded nutlets which are ribbed on the 

 back. 



The old sweet rocket sheds its fine perfumes, 



With golden stars the coreopsis flames, 

 And here are scores of sweet old-fashioned blooms. 



Dear for the very fragrance of their names — 

 Poppies and gilly flowers and four-o'clocks, 

 Cowslips and candytuft and heliotrope and hollyhocks, 



The Old-fashioned Garden — John Russell H.\yes 



260 



