MyoSOtis.] BOEAGINACE^. 325 



Nuts atout a line and a half in length, ovoid, pointed at tlie apex, bluish or 

 grayish white or partially brownish yellow, the testa extremely hard, smooth and 

 polished, resembling porcelain, enclosing a jet-black, wrinkled and shining 

 nucleus and often bursting sponlanenusly. 



The seeds, which resemble miniature eggs of porcelain, would, from the stony 

 hardness of the shell or testa, be long in vegetating were not the latter endued 

 with the faculty of spontaneously falling to pieces, and so exposing the embryo 

 to the action of air and moisture. 



3. L arvense, L. Corn Gromwell. Bastard Alkanet. " Stem 

 erect branched, leaves lanceolate acute hairy, calyx a little shorter 

 than the corolla, its segments patent when containing the ripe 

 wrinkled nuts."— Br. Fl. p. 375. E. B. t. 123. 



In diy waste and cultivated ground, cornfields, &c. ; more common here than 

 the last. Fi. April — July. 0. 



IX. Mtosotis, Linn. Scorpion-grass. 



" Calyx 5 - cleft. Corolla salver - shaped, the lobes obtuse, 

 twisted in estivation, the mouth half-closed with short rounded 

 valves. Stamens included. Style simple. Achenes smooth, 

 attached to the bottom of the calyx by a minute flat spot (not 

 perforated at the base." — Br. Fl. 



The twisted sstivation in Myosotis, though restricted to ihis genus of Boragi- 

 naceae, is one of the strongest points of analogy between that order and Convolvu- 

 laceee. 



1. M. palustris, With. Great Water Scorpion-grass. Forget- 

 me-not. " Calyx with straight appressed bristles cleft to about 

 one-third of its length when in fruit campanulate open shorter 

 than the divergent pedicels, teeth short triangular, limb of the 

 corolla flat longer than the tube, style as long as the calyx, 

 pubescence of the stem spreading (or wanting)." — Br. Fl. p. 276. 

 E. B. t. 1973. M. scorpioides palustris, L. : Sm. Fl. Brit. i. p. 

 212. 



By clear ditches, rills, pools, rivers and in wet marshy places, but rarely. Fl. 

 May — August. 2^. 



JE. Med. — Margin of a small pool in the Brick-kiln Butt facing Wackland 

 farm-house, Mr. LoeU! 



W. Med. — In a boggy meadow by the stream-side a little above Calbourne 

 village. 



3. M. repens, Don. Creeping-rooted Scorpion-grass. ■' Calyx 

 with straight appressed bristles cleft to about the middle when 

 in fruit open or connivent shorter than the divergent pedicel, teeth 

 narrow-lanceolate acute, limb of the corolla flat longer than the 

 tube, lobes somewhat emarginate style as long as the calyx, 

 pubescence of the stem spreading." — Br. Fl. p. 276. Borr. in 

 E. B. S. t. 3703. 



In similar situations with the last, but much more frequent ; sometimes found 

 in moist woods. FL June — August. If. 



JE. Med. — In the mai'sh-ditches about the Wilderness, abundantly. New 

 copse. 



