n BORAGINE^ 297 



are sometimes at the same level with, Hometimes even 

 below, the stigma. In that figured by Bentham the 

 anthers are at the summit of the tube. The flowers are 

 much visited by bees, and sometimes by butterflies and 

 moths. The stem is rough with stifi" downward -point- 

 ing, and the leaves with spreading, hairs. 



A. sempervirens. — According to Loew, the anthers 

 and stigma are at the same height. The nuts have a 

 small convex appendage on the inner side of the base. 

 The plant is rough. 



Lycopsis 



Eesembles Anchusa, but the tube is bent. 



L. arvensis (Bugloss). — The arrangement of the flower 

 agrees closely with that of the common form of Anchusa 

 officinalis. The plant is rough. 



BoRAGO (Borage) 



Flowers protandrous, in loose forked cymes. Corolla 

 rotate. Tube short, closed by scales at the mouth. 

 Filaments forked. Nectar secreted by the base of the 

 ovary, and concealed in a short tube formed by the bases 

 of the stamens. 



B. officinalis. — Flowers drooping, sky-blue. Anthers 

 nearly black, forming a cone round the stigma, and 

 opening gradually from the tip to the base. Each anther 

 is said to contain 60,000 pollen grains. They are 

 smooth, dry, and pulverulent, and fall into the conical 

 space round the pistil. The stamen has 

 a prolongation (Fig. 191) which touches, 

 or almost touches, the wall of the corolla- 

 tube. The arrangement, therefore, some- 

 what resembles that in the hanging 

 flowers of the Heath. An insect in search 

 of honey must press its proboscis between ^^^ ^g^ _j^jjtjjgj. 

 two of the stamens, thus dislocating the of Borage; en- 

 anther-tube, when some of the pollen ^^^s^'^- 

 drops on to it, and is thus carried to another flower. 

 Gradually the pistil elongates and the stigmas ripen. 



