584 



THE BORAGE FAMILY. 



VI. ALKANET. ANCHUSA. 



Coarse, hairy biennials or perennials, with, rather large blue flowers, 

 in one-sided spikes, with a bract under each flower. Calyx deeply 5- 

 cleft. Corolla with a straight tube, often slightly enlarged at the top, 

 and closed at the mouth by scales usually hairy ; the limb spreading 

 and 5-lobed. Stamens included in the tube. Nuts rather large, 

 wrinkled, angular, attached by their broad, concave base. 



The species are numerous in southern Europe and western Asia, a 

 very few extending far to the north. 



Leaves lanceolate. Flowers in terminal forked panicles . . 1. Common A. 

 Leaves broadly ovate. Flowers in short axillary spikes . . 2. Green A. 



1. Common Alkanet. Anchusa officinalis, Linn. (Fig. 697.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 662.) 



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 

 or narrow, from 2 to 5 or 6 inches long 

 the upper ones gradually smaller. The 

 one-sided forked spikes lengthen con- 

 siderably as the flowering advances 

 and form a kind of terminal panicle 

 Flowers nearly sessile, with a small 

 leafy bract at the base of each ; the ca- 

 lyx very stiffly hairy, with narrow d 

 visions ; 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 in a few 



localities, chiefly on the east coast of England, and supposed to be 



an introduced plant. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 697. 



2. Green Alkanet. Anchusa sempervirens, Linn. (Fig. 698.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 45.) 



Stock perennial, the stems more straggling than those of the com- 

 mon A., but covered with the same coarse, stiff hairs. Leaves broadly 

 ovate; the flowers in one-sided, short spikes, leafy at the base, and 



