﻿Perennial. — Flowers in May. 



Root fibrous. Stems many, from 9 to 12 inches high, upright, 

 somewhat angular, simple, leafy, very rough. Root-leaves egg- 

 heart-shaped, on long footstalks. Lower stem-leaves egg-spear- 

 shaped ; upper ones heart-spear-shaped, half embracing the stem ; 

 all of them entire, rough, harsh, light green, and usually variegated 

 with whitish-green spots on the upper side, whence they have been 

 thought to resemble the human lungs, and were therefore supposed 

 good for coughs. Clusters 2, terminal, corymbose, upright, with 

 1 or 2 bracteas at the lower part. Calyx hairy. Corolla reddish 

 or flesh-coloured in the bud, changing, as soon as expanded, to 

 violet blue ; tube whitish, a little longer than the calyx. Seeds 

 brown, or blackish, downy. There is a variety with white flowers, 

 which, as well as the common one, is frequent in gardens. 



This plant, when burnt, is said to afford a larger quantity of 

 ashes than any other vegetable ; often one-seventh of its weight. 

 Sheep and goats eat it ; cows are not fond of it ; horses and swine 

 refuse it. Chrysomela nemorum feeds upon it. 



The Natural Order Boraci'nf.ae consists of herbaceous plants or shrubs ; 

 with round stems, and alternate leaves, which are covered with asperities, con- 

 sisting of hairs proceeding from an indurated enlarged base. Their flowers are 

 produced in l -sided spikes or racemes (clusters), or panicles, sometimes solitary 

 and axillary. The calyx (fig. 1.) is monosepalous, regular, permanent, and 



4- or 5-lobed. The corolla (fig. 2.) inferior, monopetalous, generally regular, 



5- cleft, sometimes 4-cleft, with an imbricate ajstivation ; and in a certain num- 

 ber of genera presents, near the throat, five projecting appendages (valves or 

 scales, see t. 101, fig. 3.), which are hollow within, and open externally at their 

 base. The stamens are inserted upon the corolla (see fig. 3), and are equal in 

 number to its lobes, and alternate with them, seldom in greater number. The 

 ovarium ( germenj (fig. 4.) is 4-parted, and 4-seeded ; the ovula (seed) is at- 

 tached to the lowest point of the cavity ; the style (fig. 4.) is simple, and termi- 

 nated by a simple or bifid stigma. Nuts ( seeds of Linn.) 4, distinct. The seed 

 is separable from the pericarpium, without albumen. Embryo with a superior 

 radicle, and flat cotyledons parallel with the axis. See Lind. Syn. p. 163 



The plants of this order are nearly allied to those of the order Labia't* (see 

 folio 94, a.) but “ are essentially distinguished by the regularity of the corolla, 

 the presence of 5 fertile stamens, the absence of resinous dots, the round (not 

 square) figure of the stem, and the scabrous alternate leaves. On account of 

 this last character, they are often called Asperifoliee. From all other monopetal- 

 ous orders they are known by the 4 deep lobes of the ovarium, called by Linnean 

 botanists naked seeds.” Dr. Lindley. 



