Myosotis.'] 
LIX. BORAGINACEjE. 
291 
simple, often elongated after flowering. Achenes subdrupaceous, 
with a flat or prominent base seated on a hypogynous disk, 
free from the style. — Named in honour of F. C. Mertens , a 
German botanist. 
1. M. marUima Don (Seaside S .) ; stems procumbent 
branched, leaves ovate rough with callous dots, upper ones 
lanceolate, all fleshy and glaucous, achenes smooth. Pulmo- 
naria L. : E. B. t. 368. Steenhammera Reich. Lithospermum 
Hook. 
Sea-coast among sand or loose stones. Rare in England, and only 
on the west coast. Wales. Plentiful in the north and west, rarely in 
the east, of Scotland. Between Portrane and Skerries, Ireland, y. 
5, 6. — This is quite a northern plant, extending to the arctic regions. 
Lower leaves on foot-stalks; upper ones sessile. Flowers somewhat 
racemose, of a beautiful purplish blue : calyx 5-parted, angular when 
in fruit; tube of the cor. short, glabrous inside at the base, with 
minute wrinkles at the mouth ; filaments linear, flattened. Whole 
plant very glaucous; and, if the bloom is rubbed off, rough callous 
points appear, which become white and almost stony in drying, when 
the rest of the plant turns nearly black. The flavour of the leaves 
resembles that of oysters. 
** Throat of the corolla more or less closed with scales. (Gen. 
5 — 11 .) 
5. Myosotis Linn. Scorpion -grass. 
Cal. 5-cleft. Cor. salver-shaped, the lobes obtuse, twisted 
in sestivation, the mouth half-closed with short rounded valves. 
Stamens included. Style simple. Achenes smooth, attached to 
the bottom of the calyx by a minute flat spot (not perforated 
at the base). — Named from yvc, yvoc, a mouse , and ouc, ojtoc, an 
ear; from the shape of the leaves. 
* Hairs on the calyx all straight and adpressed. 
1 . M. palustris With, (creeping Water S., or Forget-me-not ) ; 
calyx with straight adpressed bristles cleft to about one third 
of its length, when in fruit campanulate open shorter than the 
diverging pedicels, teeth short triangular, limb of the corolla 
flat longer than the tube, lobes slightly emarginate, style as 
long as the calyx and tube of the corolla. — a. pubescence of 
the stem spreading (or wanting). E. B. t. 1973. M. scor- 
pioides palustris L. : Sm. FI. Brit. i. p. 212. — /3. pubescence 
more or less adpressed. M. strigulosa Reich. 
Ditches and sides of rivers, abundant, y . 6 — 8. — A very beau- 
tiful, though common plant, and considered to be the emblem of 
friendship in almost every part of Europe. About 1 foot high. 
Flowers among the largest of our species, bright blue with a yellow 
eye, and a small white ray at the base of each segment. 
