BoR.\(iK Family. 113 



lets giving a broad pyramidal outline, outer surface covered with short 

 hooked prickles. 



C. officinale L. Hound's Tony ue. Biennial; stem 1-2 feet high, silky- 

 pubescent; lower leaves petioled, upper sessile, oblong-lanceolate; flowers in 

 slender panicled racemes, bracted only at the base; corolla reddish-purple; 

 nutlets rather flattened on the broad upper surface. Pastures and waste 

 places; June-July; infrequent; Allamakee, Scott, Muscatine, Des Moines, 

 Henry, Lee, and Fremont counties; reported from Fayette county. 



ECh|INOSPERMUM Lehra. Annual biennial or perennial herbs, more or less 

 hirsute or canescent, with bracted racemes, and small blue or white flowers. 

 Calyx 5-parted. Corolla short, salverform, lobes obtuse, imbricated in the 

 bud, throat closed by 5 short concave scales. Stamens included. Nutlets 

 erect, smooth on their inner faces, armed on the back with 1-3 rows of barbed 

 prickles. 



* Racemes bracted; fruiting pedicels erect or spreading. 



E. lappula Lehm. Annual; stem 1-2 feet high, erect, strict, bristly-hairy; 

 leaves linear, lanceolate or the lower spatulate; corolla blue, longer than the 

 calyx; nutlets with two rows of spines on the margin or scattered over the 

 entire surface. Waste places; June-August; frequent. (Lappula lappula (L.) 

 Karst). 



E. texqnum Scheele. Annual; similar to the preceding, 6-20 inches high, 

 branched; leaves linear or linear-oblong, obtuse; nutlets with a single row of 

 spines on the margins, papillose-tuberculate on the back. Dry soil; May- 

 August; infrequent; Winneshiek, Johnson, and Woodbury counties. (Lap- 

 pula, texmia (Scheele) Britton. E. redowski occldentalis Watson, of Gray's 

 Manual). 



* * Racemes bracted at the base; fruiting pedicels defleoced. 



E. virginicum Lehm. Beggar's Lice. Biennial; stem 2-4 feet high, much- 

 branched, rough-pubescent; leaves large, oval or ovate-oblong, acuminate, 

 narrowed to the base; racemes slender, widely diverging; flowers small, 

 white; nutlets armed all over the back with double-barbed prickles. Dry 

 soil, waste places; June-September; common. (Lappula vlryiniana (L.) 

 Greene). 



E. americanum (Gray). Annual; stem 4-10 inches high, hairy; leaves 

 linear-oblong to lanceolate; flowers small, blue, in a lax raceme; nutlets 

 pyramidal, prickles only on the margins. Dry soil; May-August; infrequent; 

 reported from Iowa. 



MYOSOTUS L. Flowers small, in naked racemes, sometimes bracted at 

 the base. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla tubular or salverform, convolute-in the bud, 

 the tube about the length of the calyx, the throat closed by 5 short concave 

 appendages. Stamens included. Nutlets ovate, smooth, compressed. 



M. verna Nutt. Annual or biennial; stem 4-7 inches high, bristly-hairy; 

 lower leaves spatulate-oblocg, the upper obtuse; linear-oblong; raceme leafy 

 at the base; calyx deeply 5-cleft, somewhat 2-lipped, hispid; corolla small, 

 white, pedicels in fruit rather shorter than the calyx. Dry soil; May-July; 

 infrequent; Muscatine, Johnson, and Linn counties; reported from Benton 

 county. (31. virginica (L.) B. S. P. 



MERTENSIA Roth. Glabrous or pubescent perennials, with alternate 

 leaves, and blue or purple flowers in cymes, panicles, or racemes. Calyx 

 short, 5-cleft. Corolla-tube cylindrical, limb somewhat campanulate, 5-cleft, 

 throat naked or with 5 small folds alternate with the stamens. Stamens in- 



