314 THE BORAGE FAMILY. | [Anahsoags 
The species are numerous in southern Europe and dcaiad Asia, a very 
few extending far to the north. 
Leaves lanceolate. Flowers in terminal forked panicles . oh. A , officinalis. 
Leaves broadly ovate. Flowers in short axillary spikes . ee sempervirens. 
1, A. officinalis, Linn. (fig.’702). Common Alkanet.—A biennial, about 
- 
2 feet high, with coarse, stiff hairs; the root thick and hard. Radical — 
leaves long and stalked ; the lower stem-leaves lanceolate, broad and narrow, 
from 2 to 5 or 6 inches ‘long ; ; the upper ones gradually smaller. The one- 
sided forked spikes lengthen considerably as the flowering advances, and 4 
form a kind of terminal panicle. Flowers nearly sessile, with a small, leafy 
bract at the base of each ; the calyx very stiffly hairy, with narrow divisions ; 
the corolla of a rich blue, and rather large, but varies in size. 
In waste places, on roadsides, etc., all over the continent of Europe, ex- 
cept the extreme north, and eastward to the Caucasus, In Britain, only on 
ballast hills, and very rare. FU. summer. 
2, &.sempervirens, Linn. (fig. 703). Green Alkanet.—Stock per- 
ennial, the stems more straggling than those of 4. officinalis, but covered 
with the same coarse, stiff hairs. Leaves broadly ovate; the flowers in one- 
sided, short spikes, leafy at the base, and placed in the axils of the stem 
leaves. Corolla of a rich blue, with a shorter tube than in 4. officinalis. 
Nuts expanded at the base on the inner side into a small convex appendage. 
In waste places, on roadsides, etc., in western Europe, scarcely extending 
eastward along the Mediterranean, and not reaching the Rhine. Scattered 
over several parts of Britain but not truly wild. 47. spring and summer. 
VII. LYCOPSIS. BUGLOSS, 
A small European and North Asiatic genus, distinguished from Anchusa 
by the curved tube of the corolla. The species are all annuals, with small 
flowers. 
1, GL. arvensis, Linn. (fig. 704). Small Bugloss.—A coarse, spreading 
annual, covered with very stiff hairs. Stems procumbent at the base, 
branched, 1 to 2 feet long. Leaves lanceolate or oblong-linear, waved on 
the edges, and often toothed; the lower ones often stalked, the upper ones 
sessile or stem-clasping. Flowers in simple or forked, terminal, one-sided 
spikes. Calyx deeply 5-cleft, and nuts wrinkled as in Anchusa. Corolla 
pale blue, with the tube always curved in the middle. 
A common Kuropean and north Asiatic weed of cultivation, carried out 
with European crops to North America and other parts of the world, Ex- 
tends all over Britain. 27. summer. } 
VIII. SYMPHYTUM. COMFREY. 
Rough, hairy perennials, with yellow or purple drooping flowers, in short, 
terminal, forked cymes, and no bracts under the pedicels. Calyx deeply 5- 
cleft. Corolla tubular, but enlarged above the middle, where it is closed 
inside by 5 lanceolate scales, and terminates in 5 very small spreading teeth 
or lobes. Stamens shorter than the corolla. Nuts ovoid, smooth, attached 
by their base. 
