LITHOSPEEMUM PUEPUEEO-CCERULEUM* 
127 
to have been correctly informed,* none of the manuals in present 
ose describe the manner in which it creeps, or rather strides, 
over the ground by means of the peculiar arching elongation of 
the barren shoots, which ultimately produce new individuals by 
rooting at their tips. 
In the “Manual of British Botany” it is said of this 
species:—** Barren stems prostrate creeping. . . . Nuts * silvery 
white, highly polished, slightly rugged/ rarely produced.” It is 
fair to infer from this description that Prof. Babington had not 
viewed the living plant, nor yet seen a specimen in fruit. 
In the 3rd edition of English Botany we find : — ** Barren 
stems elongate, arching, procumbent. . . . Bootstock slender, 
woody, shortly creeping, producing arching barren shoots about 
1 foot long.” This gives the impression that the plant creeps 
by its roots, and not a word is said in relation to the chief 
method of propagation ; although in the 1st edition of the work 
Sir J. E. Smith remarks that most of the leafy stems throw out 
roots, and on that point is more correct than his successor. The 
poor, badly-coloured figure (E. B., 117) is supplemented in the 
3rd edition by a barren, horizontal shoot, which, however, does 
not bear rootlets. 
In the *‘ Students’ Flora ” the description runs- — ^** barren 
stems creeping, . . . rootstock creeping,” without note on the 
manner in which the ** creeping ” is effected. 
These quotations shew^ that this Gromwell is believed to 
have either a creeping root, or prostrate creeping barren stems ; 
and to produce fruit but rarely. I wish, by giving the result of 
my observations on its growth in Somerset, to supply the 
■!^ ** In hao specie, reliquis prociduis et repentihus, caulis file qui 
flores sustinet erigitnr, et foliis longioribus pallidius virentibus 
amicitur .” — -Baii Synopsis, 229. 
** Lithospermum caulibus deoumbentibus radieatis, ramis florali- 
buB erectis.”-— B'aMer Historia, 596. 
