BOBAGIKEiB. 375 



1. Common Iiungivort. Pulmonaria officinalis, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 118.) 



Hadical leaves in distinct tufts, ovate-oblong or nearly linear, on long 

 footstalks, and coarsely hairy, usually much spotted. Flowering stems 

 from 6 inches to a foot high, with shorter, alternate, mostly sessile leaves, 

 the lowest sometimes reduced to scales. Flowers in a terminal, forked 

 cyme. Calyx very hairy, httle more than 4 lines long at the opeping of 

 the flower, but twice that length when in fruit, the teeth or lobes not reach- 

 ing to the middle. Limb of the corolla broadly spreading, with short lobes. 



In woods, in central and southern Europe to the Caucasus, extending 

 northwards into Scandinavia. Eare in Britam, the only really wild stations 

 appearing to be in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Fl. spring. The 

 British specimens belong to a variety with narrow leaves, rarely spotted, 

 usually distinguished as a species under the name of P. angtistifolia (Eng. 

 Bot. t. 1628), but in many parts of the Continent the two forms pass very 

 gradually one into the other. The broad-leaved variety has been long cul- 

 tivated in cottage-gardens, and has strayed into adjoining woods in some 

 parts of the country. 



III. MERTENSIA. MERTENSIA. 



Perennial herbs, nearly glabrous, differing from Idrngwort in their short, 

 open, deeply 5-cleft calyx, in the stamens protruding slightly from the tube 

 of the corolla although shorter than the limb, and in their slightly fleshy 

 nuts. 



Besides the British species there are several nearly allied to it from North 

 America and Siberia. 



1. Sea IMEertensia. Mertensia maritima, Don. 



(^Pulmonaria, Eng. Bot. t. 368.) 



A procumbent, leafy perennial, almost succulent, covered with a glaucous 

 bloom. Leaves obovate, entire, rather thick, and often wavy ; the lower 

 ones stalked, the upper ones sessile. Flowers rather small, of a beautiful 

 purple-blue, forming a loose terminal cyme ; the pedicels nearly 6 lines 

 long. Segments of the calyx ovate, very broad after flowering, but scarcely 

 longer than the nuts. 



A seacoast plant, common in northern Europe and Asia and north-west 

 America, at high latitudes, and descending along the coasts of Scotland to 

 north-western England, North Wales, and Ireland. Fl. spring and early 



IV. LITHOSFERM. LITHOSPEKMUM. 



Annuals, perennials, or, in some exotic species, undershrubs, more or 

 less hairy ; with leafy stems, and blue or wliitish flowers, in leafy cymes or 

 one-sided spikes. Calyx deeply 5-cleft. CoroUa with a straight tube, not 

 closed by scales, and a spreading, shortly 5-lobed limb. Stamens included 

 within the tube. Nuts veiy hard and stony. 



A considerable genus, widely spread over Europe and northern Asia, al- 

 though most of the species belong to the Mediterranean region. 



