BORRACINACE^E. (BORAGE FAMILY.) 257 



Order 53. BORRAGINACEiE. (Borage Family.) 



Chiefly rough-hairy herbs, with alternate entire leaves, and symmetri- 

 cal llovvers with a 5-parted calyx, a regular 5-lobed corolla, 5 stamens 

 inserted on its tube, a single style and a deeply 4-lobed ovary (occa- 

 sionally undivided), which forms in fruit 4 seed-like nutlets, each with 

 a single seed. — Flowers mostly on one side of the branches of a re- 

 duced cyme, imitating a scorpioid spike or raceme. 



A. Ovary undivided (or only laterally 4-lobed) and surmounted by the style. 



1. C old en i a. Calyx 5-parted ; the divisions narrow. Corolla short-funnelfonn or nearly 

 salverform; the lobes rounded, imbricated or sometimes partly convolute in the bud. 

 Style 2-cleft or 2-parted : ovary (in ours) laterally 4-lobed. Fruit separating at ma- 

 turity into 4 one-seeded nutlets, or by abortion fewer. 



2 Heliotropium. Calyx deeply 5-parted, persistent. Corolla salverform or funnelform, 

 plaited and mostly imbricated in the bud. Anthers connivent, sometimes cohering 

 by pointed tips. Style entire or none: stigma peltate-annular, forming a complete 

 ring, surmounted usually by an entire or 2-lobed tip or appendage : ovary 4-celled. 

 Fruit 2 or 4-lobed, separating into two 2-celled and 2-seeded carpels or more com- 

 monly into 4 one-seeded nutlets. 



B. Ovary 4-parted from above into 1-celled 1-ovuled divisions surrounding the base of the 

 undivided style ; stigma terminal, not annular. 



* Nutlets obliquely attached by more or less of the ventral face or angle, or by the base or 



prolongation of it, to 



■t- The more or less elevated gynobase which supports the style, not stipitate. 



3. Echinospermum. Nutlets armed (either along a distinct margin or more or less over 



the whole back) with glochidiate prickles, forming burs. Calyx refiexed or open in 

 fruit. Corolla white or blue ; the throat closed with prominent fornicate appen- 

 dages. 



4. Omphalodes. Nutlets ascending or subhorizontal, with depressed back surrounded 



by a wing or margin which at maturity is reflexed, and its pectinate or spinulose teeth 

 when present not glochidiate (disk sometimes so), somewhat supra-basal or ventral in 

 attachment. Corolla rotate or very short funnelform, bright blue. 



5. Krynitzkia. Nutlets erect, convex on the back and naked, wholly unappendaged 



(rarely with a narrow plane border), attached by the inner side above the middle or 

 more or less towards the base. Corolla rotate or funnelform, white, and mostly small. 



•t- -i- Nutlets sessile or obscurely stipitate on a flat or merely convex receptacle. 

 G. Mertensia. Corolla from tubular-funnelform or trumpet-shaped to almost campanulate, 

 with open throat, bearing obvious or obsolete transverse folds for crests. Stigma 

 entire. Nutlets attached by a small or short scar just above the base to a barely or 

 sometimes strongly convex gynobase. Often smooth and glabrous, with blue or 

 rarely white flowers, mostly bractless. 



* * Nutlets sessile and directly (usually centrally) attached by the very base to a plane 



gynobase. 

 7. Myosotis. Corolla short-salverform or almost rotate ; its throat contracted by trans- 

 verse crests ; the rounded lobes convolute in the bud. Nutlets small, smooth and 

 shining, thin-crustaceous. Racemes mainly ebracteate. 

 3. Lithospermum. Corolla salverform, funnelform, or sometimes approaching campanu- 

 late, either naked or with pubescent lines or intruded gibbosities or low transverse 

 crests at the throat. Nutlets ovoid, bony, either polished and white or dull and rough. 

 Flowers all subtended by leaves or bracts. 



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