BORRAGETACEiE. 519 



The one-sided and coiled apparent spikes or racemes straighten as the blossoms 

 develop : these sometimes scattered : bracts frequently wanting. Echium, an 

 Old World genus with irregular corolla and stamens, has not reached California 

 (although the common species is naturalized in the United States): nor are there 

 any of the first and second tribes with fleshy or berry-like drupaceous fruit ; these 

 belonging maiuly to tropical regions. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. -IS. 



A rather large order, of wide distribution, comprising between 60 and 70 genera, of no economi- 

 cal importance, except that the roots of several yield a red dye, and those of < lomfrey were of re- 

 pute in popular medicine as a demulcent, while some, such as Heliotropes and Forget-me-nots, 

 are cultivated for ornament. Although the Californian genera are hardly more numerous than 

 those of the Atlantic States, the species are twice as many. 



As in the foregoing order, the scorpioid flower-clusters are termed spikes or racemes, although 

 the Mowers are not in the axils of the bracts, when these are present. 



Echidiocarya Arizonic v. Gray, a new genus of a single species from the middle of Arizona, 

 is doubtless wholly out of our range. The aspect of the plant is wholly that of an K. 

 but the nutlets are as it were stipitate and inflexed over the short free style, with the thick 

 and cartilaginous elongated bases or stalks united in pail's, the whole bearing some likeness to 

 four viper-heads. 



Tbibf. I. CORD1E.E. Style terminal, once or twice forked ; the branches tipped with a 

 simple stigma. Ovary laterally 1-lobed or entire. Generally woody, ours herbaceous. 



1. Coldenia. Corolla-lobes imbricated or partly convolute in the bud. Style simply and deeply 



2-cleft. Fruit separating into i (or by abortion fewer) one-seeded dry nutlets. 



Tkibe II. HELIOTRuHE.E. Style terminal, sometimes very short or none, entire: stigma 

 a fleshy ring or the margin of a disk, which is mostly surmounted by a conical appendage. 

 ( (vary entire or laterally 2 - 4-lobed. Inflorescence unilateral. Herbs or sometimes 

 shrubby plants. 



2. Heliotropium. Corolla imbricated in the bud, with the sinuses plaited. Fruit splitting 



into i one-seeded or 2 two-celled and two-seeded nutlets. 



Tkibe III. BORRAGE/E. Style central, entire or nearly so, terminated by a single stigma 

 or pair of stigmas destitute of any appendage, its base surrounded by the divisions of the 

 deeply 1-parted ovary, which in fruit are separate dry nutlets. Inflorescence mostly uni- 

 lateral and scorpioid. Herbs, rarely somewhat shrubby plants, commonly scabrous or 

 hispid. 



« Nutlets naked in the base of the equal and unchanged calyx. 



+■ Nutlets fixed by their very base to a flat receptacle, erect ; the scar flat and rather small. 



3. Lithospermum. Nutlets bony. Flow. icted. Corolla-lobes imbricated in the 



laid, as in all the following but No. 1. 

 I. Myosotis. Nutlets thin-crustaceous, smooth. Inflorescence bractless. Corolla-lobes con- 

 volute in the bud. 



-i- -i- Nutlets fixed by some part of the inner angle or face, either next tie base or higher up, to 

 a conical, low-pyramidal, or more eta itedi 



++ Unarmed and except one species unappendoged, erect. 



.".. Mertensia. Flowers violet or blue. Nutlets rather fleshy, becoming coriaceous. Smooth 

 or soft-pubescent perennials. 



6. Amsinckia. Flowers bright yellow. Nutlets coriaceous or crusts "is. fixed above the 



Cotyledons l. tint is each of the pair 2-parted ! Bristly-hispid annuals. 



7. Eritrichium. Flowers in ours white. Null. ius or cartilaginous, ovate or tri- 



angular. Hirsute or hispid, mostly annuals. 



++ ++ Glochidiat ■ otherwise armed or prickly nutlets, becoming burs (sticking in the lie, ce oi 



bair of sheep am prcading in fi ilia blue or white. 



8. Echinospermum. Nutlets erect : the margin surrounded by barbed-tipped prickles. Flow- 



oi . -in ill, in partly bracted racemes "i spikes. Annuals or biennials. 

 D. Cynoglosaum. Nutlets becoming depressed, oblique or horizontal, all the back covered 

 with short and stout barbed-tipped bristles or prickles, at maturity separating from the 

 receptacle from the base upwards and hanging awhile from the style. Flowers 

 in bractless ponicled racemes. Ours perennial. 



