BORAGINACEAE 



BORAGE FAMILY 



COMMON HOUND'S TONGUE 



Cynoglossum officinale L. 



Favorite haunts of the Hound's Tongue seem to be old pastures 

 but it occurs in other fields and waste places as well. Though 

 sometimes a troublesome weed it can be killed if cut below the 

 surface of the ground. It was intro- 

 duced into this country from Europe 

 and is distributed from Quebec to 

 Manitoba and Montana, south to Kan- 

 sas, Alabama and South Carolina. 



This is a biennial which in the first 

 year produces only a rosette of leaves 

 and a strong root. In the second year 

 a stout branched stem arises 1-3 feet 

 high and leafy to the top. Basal and 

 lower leaves are 6-12 inches long, 1-3 

 inches wide and on slender petioles. 



Pretty, though not very conspicu- 

 ous, and disagreeably odored flowers 

 are produced from May to September. 

 The green calyx is 5-lobed and becomes 

 enlarged and spreading in fruit. The 

 corolla is reddish purple or very rarely 

 white. It is somewhat funnel shaped 

 but the tube is short and its throat is 

 closed by 5 scales, i opposite each of the 

 rounded lobes. The 5 stamens with 

 short filaments and oblong anthers are 

 attached to the corolla and included 

 within its tube. The ovary is deeply 4- 

 lobed and separates . into 4 single- 

 seeded nutlets in fruit, the style arising 

 from between them. 



The nutlets are covered with short 

 barbed prickles that cling readily to the fur or wool of animals. 



The Wild Comfrey, Cynoglossum virginianum L., is the other and 

 perennial species in Illinois. This is a conspicuous woodland plant, 

 roughish with spreading bristly hairs, whose flowering stems, \y2-~'/'2 

 feet tall, bear few small leaves and 2-6 racemes of pale blue flowers 

 on long naked peduncles. The prickly nutlets are about three-eighths 

 of an inch long and they separate and fall off at maturity. 



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