704 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Phacelia sericea A Gray 



Herbs 6 inches to a foot high from a branching caudex, silky-pubescent or 

 canescent, or the simple virgate stems and inflorescence villous-hirsute, rather 

 leafy to the top ; leaves pinnately parted into linear or narrow-oblong numerous 

 and often again few-cleft or pinnatifid divisions, silky canescent or sometimes 

 greenish; the lower petioled; the uppermost simpler and nearly sessile; short 

 spikes crowded in a naked spike-like thyrsus; corolla violet-blue or whitish; 

 stamens long exserted; capsule a little longer than the calyx. 



Distribution. Common in the mountains from Colorado and northward in 

 rather dry soil. 



Phacelia Mensiesii Torr. 



Herbs 6 inches to a foot high, at length paniculate-branched, hispid or rough- 

 ish-hirsute ; leaves mostly sessile, linear or lanceolate and entire, or some of them 

 deeply cleft; the lobes few or single, linear or lanceolate, entire; spikes or 

 spike-like racemes thyrsoid-paniculate, at length elongated and erect; corolla 

 bright violet or sometimes white; stamens about the length of the corolla; 

 capsule shorter than the calyx. 



Distribution. Common in the Rocky Mountains from Montana to Utah and 

 westward. 



Poisonous properties. The stiff bristles upon these plants certainly produce 

 mechanical injuries. A form of dermatitis venenata occurs after handling the 

 plants. The writer has had abundant experience in contact with these plants 

 in the Rocky Mountains. 



BoRAGiNACEAE. Boragc Family 



Herbs, shrubs or trees, with alternate entire, rough or frequently scabrous 

 or setose leaves; flowers perfect, usually regular, generally blue, borne in 

 one-sided spikes; racemes, cymes or scattered; calyx inferior, mostly S-lobed 

 or S-cleft; corolla short, bell or wheel-shaped S-cleft or S-parted; stamens as 

 many as the lobes of the corolla and alternate with them; ovary superior, 

 deeply 2-lobed; style entire; capsule globular; fruit forming 4 seed-like, 1- 

 seeded nutlets, or into two 2-seeded or four 1-seeded nutlets. 



A large family of wide distribution, consisting of about 80 genera and ISOO 

 species. Some of the members are ornamental and are frequently cultivated, 

 like the common heliotrope (Heliotropium peruvianum), native to Peru, used 

 for bedding and in greenhouses. Borago or borage {Borage officinalis), used 

 in old gardens for ornamental purposes is an excellent honey plant. Lungwort 

 {Mertensia virginica), an early spring blooming plant of the North, with 

 handsome blue flowers, is occasionally cultivated. The Rocky Mountain M. 

 sihirica is an equally handsome species. The forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpi- 

 oides), with small but pretty blue flowers, native of Europe, is occasionally 

 cultivated. Alkanet (Alkana tinctoria — Anchusa tinctorial, a native of southern 

 Europe, yields a red dye used for coloring oils and wax. Other plants of 

 this order yield a similar product and one species is known to color the wool 

 of sheep. The roots of the common puccoon (Lithospermum) , also yield a 

 dye. The comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is used as a forage plant in Europe, 

 but in the United States is seldom cultivated. The wood of Cordia alba is used 

 by military authorities in San Juan in the manufacture of gun carriages, car- 

 penters' benches, vises, etc. 



