190 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 



more or less covered with prickles, which are barbed at the 

 tip, attached by their sides to the base of the style. 



1. E. virginicum, Lehm. Beggar's Lice. A coarse biennial, 

 2-4 ft. high, the stem much branched above. Root-leaves roundish- 

 ovate or heart-shaped, on slender petioles ; stem-leaves 3-4 in. long, 

 pointed at both ends. Racemes 1-3 in. long, terminating the slender, 

 spreading branches. Flowers small, bluish-white. Fruit forming a 

 troublesome bur. Fence-rows and thickets. 



IV. 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 6 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, DC. Lungwort, Bluebells. Smooth, nearly 

 erect, 1-li ft. high. Root-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. 



V. MYOSOTIS, DUl. 



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 

 6-cleft, the lobes erect or spreading in fruit. Corolla salver- 

 form, 5-lobed, the tube as long as the calyx, the throat with 

 6 small appendages. Stamens 5, inserted in the tube of the 

 corolla, included. Ovary 4-parted; style slender. Nutlets 

 smooth or downy, elliptical, compressed.* 



1. M. palustris, Withering. Forget-me-not. 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 ; pedi- 

 cels becoming elongated in fruit. Lobes of the calyx shorter than 

 the tube, spreading in fruit. Corolla blue with a yellow eye ; nut- 

 lets angled, smooth. Common in gardens and often naturalized.* 



