580 



THE BORAGE FAMILY. 



3. Creeping Lithosperm. Lithospermum purpureo- 

 cseruleum, Linn. (Fig. 691.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 117.) 



Stock perennial, with procumbent, 

 leafy stems, often 2 feet long or more, 

 and shorter, ascending or nearly erect 

 flowering stems, ending in a leafy forked 

 cyme. Leaves lanceolate and hairy. 

 Flowers nearly sessile, of a rich blue, 

 rather large, but usually shorter than the 

 leaves; the calyx-segments narrow. Nuts 

 smooth and shining. 



In thickets and open woods, in central 

 and southern Europe, from the Atlantic 

 to the Caucasus. Rare in Britain, and 

 only in some of the southern counties of 

 England. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 691. 



Y. MYOSOTE. MYOSOTIS. 



Annual or perennial, low or rather weak herbs, with oblong or linear 

 stem-leaves ; the radical ones broader, shorter, and stalked ; the flowers 

 small, blue or white, in one-sided racemes, either forked or simple, 

 without bracts at the base of the pedicels. Calyx 5-toothed or 5- 

 cleft. Corolla with a small, straight tube, half closed at its mouth by 

 5 short scales, and a spreading, flat or concave, 5-lobedlimb. Stamens 

 included in the tube. JN"uts smooth and shining, compressed or trian- 

 gular, attached by their small base. 



A numerous genus in Europe and northern Asia, scarce in North 

 America, but reappearing in Australia. Although the characters which 

 separate it from Alhanet appear slight, it is very distinct in habit. 



Calyx-teeth short or not divided beyond the middle. Hairs 



of the calyx appressed 1. Water M. 



Calyx deeply cleft, the hairs spreading or hooked. 



Pedicels as long or longer than the calyx, 3 to 6 lines long 

 when in fruit. 



