BORAGE FAMILY 205 
IV. MYOSOTIS L. 
Low, annual, biennial, or perennial herbs ; stems branching, 
erect, or diffuse. Leaves alternate, entire. Flowers small, 
blue, pink, or white, in elongated, bractless racemes. Calyx 
5-cleft, the lobes erect or spreading in fruit. Corolla salver- 
form, 5-lobed, the tube as long as the calyx, the throat with 
5 small appendages. Stamens 5, inserted in the tube of the 
corolla, included. Ovary parted; style slender. Nutlets 
smooth or downy, elliptical, compressed.* 
1. M. scorpioides L. Forcret-Mr-Nor. Perennial, from slender 
rootstocks; stems slender, downy, rooting at the nodes, 6-15 in. 
long. Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, narrowed to the 
sessile base, appressed-downy. Racemes many-flowered; pedicels 
becoming elongated in fruit. Lobes of the calyx shorter than the 
tube, spreading in fruit. Corolla blue, with a yellow eye. Nutlets 
angled, smooth. In gardens and often naturalized from Europe.* 
2. M.laxa Lehm. Smarty Forert-Mr-Nor. Annual or perennial ; 
whole plant downy; stem slender, weak, decumbent and rooting at 
the base, 1-2 ft. long. Lower leaves spatulate, the upper lanceolate. 
Racemes loosely flowered, becoming elongated in fruit; pedicels 
spreading. Calyx rough-hairy, the lobes as long as the tube. Corolla 
pale blue, with a yellow eye. Nutlets convex on all sides. On low 
ground and in brooks and ponds.* 
V. MERTENSIA Roth. 
Perennial herbs. Leaves generally pale, smooth, and entire. 
Calyx short, deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted. Corolla somewhat 
trumpet-shaped or funnel-shaped, often with 5 small folds or 
ridges in the throat, between the points of insertion of the 
stamens. Style long and slender. Nutlets smooth, or at length 
becoming wrinkled. 
1. M. virginica Link. Lunewort, BLurBexis. Smooth, nearly 
erect, 1-14 ft. high. Basal leaves large, obovate or nearly so, and 
petioled; stem leaves smaller, sessile. Flowers clustered. Corolla 
nearly trumpet-shaped, varying with age from lilac to blue (or occa- 
sionally white). Stamens with slender filaments projecting beyond 
the corolla tube. Damp, open woods, and banks of streams; some- 
times cultivated. 
