EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



451 



flowers often in one-sided scorpioid clusters (407). Calyx of five 

 leafy and persistent sepals, more or less united at the base, regular. 

 Corolla regular ; the limb flve-lobed, often with a row of scales in 

 the throat. Stamens as many as its lobes and alternate with them. 

 Ovary deeply four-lobed, the style proceeding from the base of the 

 lobes, which in fruit become little nuts or hard achenia. Seeds with 

 little or no albumen. — Ex. Borage, Lithospermum, Myosotis, Cyno- 

 glossum (Hound's-Tongue), Heliotropium, &c. In Echium, the limb 

 of the corolla is somewhat irregular, and the stamens unequal. In- 

 nocent mucilaginous plants with a slight astringency : hence demul- 

 cent and pectoral ; as the roots of the Comfrey. The roots of An- 



chusa tinctoria (Alkanet) and Lithospermum canescens, &c. (used 

 by the aborigines under the name of Puccoon) yield a red dye. 



878. Subord. ! Cordiacea; consists of tropical woody plants, with 

 the ovary entire (not four-lobed), but in fruit drupaceous or dry and 

 indehiscent, four-seeded. The cotyledons of Cordia are plaited lon- 

 gitudinally (and are often edible), and the style is twice forked. 



879. Ord. llydrophyllaCCEB ( Water-leaf Family). Herbs, usually 

 with alternate and lobed or pinnatifid leaves ; the flowers mostly 

 in cymose clusters or unilateral racemes. Calyx five-cleft, with the 



FIG. 1003. Myosotis, or Forget-me-not. 1004. The rotate corolla laid open, showing the 

 scales of the throat, and the short stamens. 1005. The pistil with its four-lobed ovary. 1006. 

 The calyx in fruit ; two of the little nuts having fallen away from the receptacle. 1007. Sec- 

 tion of a nut, or rather achenium, showing the embryo. 1008 Kaceme of Symphytum offici- 

 nale (Comfrey). 1009. A corolla laid open ; exhibiting the lanceolate and pointed scales of the 

 throat, alternate with the stamens. 



