Borraginacee—Lithospermuni. a6 
Stamens included. Nuts 4, very hard and bony, smooth or 
rugose. There are about fifty species, scattered over Europe, 
North Asia, and North America. The name is a compound 
of AlGos, a stone, and omégppua, a seed, in reference to the stony 
carpels or nuts. There are three indigenous species :—L. 
officindle, Gromwell, is an erect perennial with small yellowish 
white flowers and smooth white nuts; and LZ. arvénse is an 
erect branching annual with yellowish white flowers and grey 
wrinkled nuts. The third species is — 
1. L. purpivreo-ceriilewm.—This is a handsome perennial 
with creeping barren and erect flowering stems about a foot 
high. Leaves scabrid, small, sessile, linear-lanceolate. Flowers 
about 8 lines in diameter, purple and blue, appearing in 
Summer. A rare plant in Britain, being confined to a few 
localities on limestone and chalk hills in the South. 
2. L. prostratum, syn. L. fruticdsum.—-A shrubby evergreen 
trailer with narrow lanceolate hairy leaves and beautiful deep 
blue flowers striped with reddish violet. This is one of the most 
effective dwarf plants in cultivation. It is a native of the 
South of Europe, and produces its handsome blossoms from 
May till July. 
L. Gastoni is another handsome species of this group. 
7. MYOSOTIS. 
Annual or perennial herbs more or less hispidly hairy. Radi- 
cal leaves petiolate; cauline sessile, oblong or lanceolate. 
Flowers in scorpioid cymes or racemes, with or without bracts. 
Calyx-tube equalling or exceeding the 5-lobed limb. Corolla 
funnel-shaped, with 5 notched scales in the throat. Stamens 
included. Nuts 4, very small, and usually smooth and glossy. 
The species of this genus are found in the temperate regions 
of both hemispheres. The name is from pis, mouse, and ovs, 
@tds, ear, from the resemblance of the soft hairy leaves of some 
species. We have eight indigenous species, popularly known by 
the names of Forget-me-not and Scorpion Grass. The follow- 
ing enumeration includes the best of them. 
1. M. palistris. Forget-me-not.—A perennial species 
growing in wet marshy places and on the borders of ditches 
Leaves bright glossy green, oblong or spathulate, upper slightly 
decurrent. Flowers sky-blue with a yellow centre. One of 
the loveliest members of the native flora, producing its pretty 
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