310° THE BORAGE FAMILY. 
II]. MERTENSIA. MERTENSIA. 
Perennial herbs, nearly glabrous, differing from Pulmonaria in their 
short, open, deeply 5-cleft calyx, in the stamens protruding slightly 
from the tube of the corolla although shorter than the limb, and in 
their slightly fleshy nuts. 
Besides the British species there are several nearly allied to it from 
North America and Siberia. 
1. M. maritima, Don. (fig. 695). Sea M.—A procumbent leafy 
perennial, almost succulent, covered with a glaucous bloom. Leaves 
obovate, entire, rather thick, and often wavy ; the lower ones stalked, 
the upper ones sessile. Flowers rather small, of a beautiful purple-blue, 
forming a loose terminal cyme; the pedicels nearly 6 lines long. 
Segments of the calyx ovate, very broad after flowering, but scarcely — 
longer than the nuts. 
A seacoast plant, common in northern Europe and Asia and north- 
west America, at high latitudes, and descending along the coasts of 
Scotland to Berwick, North Wales, and Ireland. FI. spring and early 
summer. 
IV. LITHOSPERMUM. GROMWELL. 
Annuals, perennials, or, in some exotic species, undershrubs, more or 
less hairy ; with leafy stems, and blue or whitish flowers, in leafy cymes 
or l1-sided spikes. Calyx deeply 5-cleft. Corolla with a straight tube, 
not closed by scales, and a spreading, shortly 5-lobed limb. Stamens 
included within the tube. Nuts very hard and stony. 
A considerable genus, widely spread over Europe and northern Asia, 
although most of the species belong to the Mediterranean region. 
Flowers small, white, or pale yellow. Stems crect. 
Stock perennial. Nuts smooth . : : : . 2 L. officinate. 
Annual, Nuts wrinkled . . 1. L. arvense. 
Flowers showy, of a debt blue. Stems long and strag. 
gling . . 3. L. purpureo-ceeruleuin. 
1. L. arvense, hue (fig. 696). Conse Gs Rashard Alkanet.—An erect, 
usually branched annual, about a foot high, ‘and more or less hoary with | 
appressed. hairs. Leaves narrow-lanceolate, or nearly linear. Flowers 
small and white, sessile, in leafy terminal cymes ; the segments of the 
calyx nearly as long as the corolla, Nuts shorter than the calyx, conical, 
very hard, and deeply wrinkled. 
In cultivated and waste places, in Hurope and western and central 
Asia, not extending to the Arctic regions, but carried out as a cornfield 
weed to various parts of the world. Rather frequent in Britain. . 
spring and summer. 
2. L. officinale, Linn. (fig. 697). Common G.—Stock perennial, with 
a stouter and taller stem than that of LZ. arvense, which this species 
otherwise much resembles. Flowers rather smaller, of a yellowish 
white; the calyx shorter in proportion. Nuts hard and white, very 
smooth and shining, without any wrinkles unless dried before they are 
ripe. | 
In waste places, on roadsides, &c., diffused over the whole of Europe ~ 
and Russian Asia, except the extreme north, and established in many 
