376 THE BOEAGE FAMILY. 



Flowers small, wliite or pale yellow. Stems erect. 



Stock perennial. Nuts smooth 2. Common L. 



Annual. Nuts wrinkled 1. Cum L. 



Flowers showy, of a bright blue. Stems long and straggling ... 3. Creeping L. 



1. Corn Ijitliosperm. Liithospermuiu arvense, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 123. Corn Gromwell. Bastard AUcanet.) 

 An erect, usually branched annual, about a foot high, and more or less 

 hoary with appressed liairs. Leaves narrow-lanceolate or nearly linear. 

 Flowers small and white, sessile, in leafy terminal cymes ; the segments of 

 the calyx nearly as long as the coroUa. Nuts shorter than the calyx, corneal, 

 very hard, and deeply wrinkled. 



In cultivated and waste places, in Europe and western and central Asia, 

 not extending to the Arctic regions, but carried out as a cornfield weed to 

 various parts of the world. Ratlier frequent in England, L-eland, and 

 southern Scotland, but less so in the north. Fl. spring and summer. 



2. Common Iiithosperm. Iiithospermum officinale, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 134. Grunmell.) 



Stock perennial, with a stouter and taller stem than that of the corn L., 

 which this species otherwise much resembles. Flowers ratlier smaller, of a 

 yellowish white ; tlie calyx shorter in proportion. Nuts hard and wliite, 

 very smooth and sliining, witliOut any wrinkles imless dried before they are 

 ripe. 



In waste places, on roadsides, etc., diffused over the whole of Europe and 

 Russian Asia, except the extreme north, and established in many parts of 

 North America. Common in several parts of England and Ireland, but 

 rare in Scotland. Fl. spring and summer. 



3. Creeping' Iiithosperm. Lithospermum purpureo-cseruleum, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 117.) 



Stock perennial, with procumbent, leafy stems, often 2 feet long or more, 

 and shorter, ascending or nearly erect flowering stems, ending in a leafy- 

 forked cvme. Leaves lanceolate and hairy. Flowers nearly sessile, of a rich 

 blue, rather large, but usually shorter than the leaves ; the calyx-segments 

 narrow. Nuts smooth and shining. 



In thickets and open woods, in central and southern Europe, fi-om the 

 Atlantic to the Caucasus. Rare in Britain, and only in some of the south- 

 ern counties of England. Fl. summer. 



y. MYOSOTE. MYOSOTIS. 



Annual or perennial, low or rather weak herbs, with oblong or linear 

 stem-leaves ; the radical ones broader, shorter, and stalked ; the flowers 

 small, blue or white, in one-sided racemes, either forked or simple, without 

 bracts at the base of the pedicels. Calyx 5-toothed or 5-cleft. Corolla 

 with a small, straight tube, half-closed at its mouth by 5 short scales, and 

 a spreading, flat or concave, 5-lobed limb. Stamens included in the tube. 

 Nuts smooth and shining, compressed or triangular, attached by then- small 

 base. . 



A numerous genus in Europe and northern Asia, scarce in North Ame- 



