Echium. COXVOLVULACEi. 207 



20. IjYC6PSIS, L. Bugloss. (.ytxo.-, wolf, and o/u-, face or likeness; 

 from some fanciful resemblance.) — Coarse setose-hispid annuals, of the Old 

 World, small-rtowered and leafy-bracted, one species sparingly introduced into 

 the Eastern Atlantic States. 



L. ARVExsis, L. Rough and inelegant weed, a foot or two high, with spreading bristly 

 hairs at length pustulate at base: leaves lanceolate, undulate-margined : flowers more or 

 less racemose : corolla blue, or at first purple ; the tube not longer than calyx ; lobes barely 

 a line long. — Dry waste grounds, Canada to Virginia : scarce. (Nat. from Eu.) 



21. :fiCHIUM, Tourn. Viper's Bugloss, Bli-e-^veed. (Old Greek name, 

 from f/(,-. a viper ; the shape of the nutlets likened to a snake's head.) — Bien- 

 nials (or rarely shrubs), of the Old World; flowering in summer. One species 

 an introduced weed. 



E. vulgAee, L. Rough-hispid herb, a foot or two high : leaves lanceolate, or the upper 

 linear, sessile : flowers in short lateral spikes disposed in a raceme-like thyrsus : corolla 

 almost an inch long, showy, purple changing to deep blue (rarely pale). — Roadsides and 

 meadows of the JliJdle Atlantic Stat^. (Xat. from Eu.) 



Order XCIV. COXVOLYULACEiE. 



Herbs or shrubs, with stems generally twining or trailing, and many with milky 

 juice ; the leaves alternate and petioled, destitute of stipules ; peduncles truly 

 axillary, 1-flowered or C3'mosely 3— many-tlowered ; flowers regular and perfect, 

 5-merous or rarely 4-merous, except as to the gynoecium which is almost always 

 2-carpellary ; calyx mostly of distinct and imbricated sepals, persistent ; corolla 

 either plicate and the plaits convoliite, or induplicate-valvate, or sometimes im- 

 bricated in the bud, the limb either lobed or entire ; stamens as many as the 

 corolla-lobes and alternate with them, usually inserted low down on the tube ; 

 hvpiigvnous disk commonly annular and manifest; ovary 2-celled or rarely 

 3-celled, with a pair of erect anatropous ovules in each cell, or spuriously 

 4-6-celled (each cell being more or less divided into a pair of 1-ovuled half-cells 

 by a false partition), or rarely 2— l-parted from above around the style in the 

 manner of BorraginacecB ; style single or once or twice divided ; stigmas terminal 

 or introrse ; fruit capsular or sometimes fleshy ; seeds comparatively large, filled 

 by a crumpled or plaited embryo involving or partly surrounded by a little muci- 

 laginous or fleshy albumen, its cotyledons ample and foliaceous, or in Cuscuta 

 a spiral embryo and no cotyledons. Citsciifa moreover is leafless. Xolanea form 

 an exceptional tribe with several or many indehiscent carpels, narrow cotyledons. 

 &c., but ai'e all South American, and connect with the following order. The 

 present large order is well distinguished from all its allies by the character of the 

 solitary or geminate seeds, size and nature of the embryo, and inferior radicle, 

 along with the usually twining or trailing growth, alternate leaves, ifce. 



Tride I. DICHOXDREJE. Ovary divided into 2 or 4 carpels or almost separate 

 lobes, surrounding a pair of basilar styles. 



1. DICHONDRA. Corolla deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted, not plicate; the lobes imbricated 

 in the bud. Tilaraents and anthers short, i ivary 2-parted, forming 2 indehiscent or irree- 

 ularly burstintr utricles in fruit : styles 2 or at base united into one, flliform : stigmas 

 capitate. Seed by abortion solitary, globular, smooth. Embryo biplicate : cotyledons 

 elongated-oblong. Creeping herbs. 



