Borago.] MIL BOKAGINEiE. 315 



short ; the mouth closed by short scales. Stamens 5 ; the filaments 

 very short and forked ; the anthers forming an erect cone in the centre 

 of the flower. Nuts attached by their excavated base, and free from 

 the style. 



A genus of few species, chiefly from north-eastern Europe and 

 western Asia. 



1. B. officinalis, Linn. (fig. 709). Common B.— Stem erect, with 

 spreading branches, a foot high, or rather more. Lower leaves obovate 

 or oblong, narrowed at the base into long stalks ; the upper ones more 

 shortly stalked, and narrower. Flowers on long pedicels, drooping, of 

 a clear blue or sometimes white ; the dark anthers very prominent in 

 the centre. 



In waste grounds, indigenous to the east Mediterranean region, long 

 cultivated in European gardens, and naturalised in many parts of 

 central and western Europe, and in several counties of England. FL 

 all summer. 



X. ASPERUGO. ASPEEUGO. 



A single species, allied to Anchusa, but universally admitted as a genus 

 on account of the peculiar calyx and habit. 



1. A. procumbens, Linn. (fig. 710). Madwort. — A weak procum- 

 bent annual, rough with short, stiff, almost prickly hairs, many 

 of them curved or hooked so as to be very adhesive. Leaves oblong 

 or lanceolate, narrowed at the base, the lower ones stalked, those under 

 the flowers often nearly opposite. Flowers small and blue, 1 to 3 

 together in the axils of the upper leaves, on very short, recurved 

 pedicels. The broadly campanulate calyx enlarges immediately after 

 flowering, becomes much flattened, veined, and divided to the middle 

 into 5 lanceolate lobes, with 1 or 2 small ones between each. Corolla 

 that of a very small Anchusa. Nuts ovoid, with a granulated surface. 



In cultivated and waste places, over nearly the whole of Europe and 

 northern Asia short of the Arctic Circle. Occurs as a weed of cultiva- 

 tion in many parts of England and Scotland, but not in Ireland. Fl, 

 summer. 



XL CYNOGLOSSUM. HOUND'S-TONGUE. 



Stout, erect biennials, clothed with rough hairs, which are, however, 

 more appressed and hoary than in most Boragineous plants ; with long, 

 narrow leaves, and rather small, blue or purplish-red flowers, in simple 

 or forked 1 -sided racemes. Calyx deeply 5-cleft. Corolla with a 

 short tube, closed at the mouth by prominent scales, and a spreading, 

 5-lobed, regular limb. Nuts rather large, depressed, attached laterally 

 to the base of the style, and covered with short, hooked prickles, so as 

 to make them very adhesive burs. 



A European and Asiatic genus, rather numerous in species, especially 

 if considered as including the little blue-flowered Omphalodes and the 

 white-flowered C. linifolium. These two species, formerly frequent in 

 our flower-gardens, are, however, now generally distinguished with some 

 others as a genus by the nuts, which instead of being muricated all over, 

 have a raised, more or less toothed border. 



