Chapter C: OFFICINALE, L. (COMMON HOUND'S-TONGUE.) Biennial; clothed with short

soft hairs, leafy_, panicled above; upper leaves lanceolate, closely sessile by a rounded or slightly heart-shaped base; racemes nearly bractless; _corolla reddish-purple_ (rarely white); nutlets flat on the broad upper face, somewhat margined.--Waste ground and pastures; a familiar and troublesome weed; the large nutlets adhering to the fleece of sheep, etc. (Nat. from Eu.)

1. C. Virginicum, L. (WILD COMFREY.) Perennial; _roughish with spreading bristly hairs_; stem simple, _few-leaved_ (2--3 deg. high); stem-leaves lanceolate-oblong, clasping by a deep heart-shaped base; _racemes few and corymbed, raised on long naked peduncles_, bractless; _corolla pale blue_; nutlets strongly convex.--Open woods, Ont. and Sask. to Fla. and La.

3. ECHINOSPERMUM, Lehm. STICKSEED.

Corolla salver-form, short, imbricated in the bud, the throat closed with 5 short scales. Stamens included. Nutlets erect, fixed laterally to the base of the style or central column, triangular or compressed, the back armed all over or with 1--3 marginal rows of prickles which are barbed at the apex, otherwise naked.--Rough-hairy and grayish herbs, with small blue to whitish flowers in racemes or spikes; ours annuals or biennials, flowering all summer. (Name compounded of [Greek: e)chi~nos], _a hedgehog_, and [Greek: spe/rma], _seed_.)

[*] _Racemes panicled, leafy-bracteate at base; slender pedicels recurved or deflexed in fruit; calyx-lobes short, at length reflexed; biennial, not hispid._

1. E. Virginicum, Lehm. (BEGGAR'S LICE.) Stem 2--4 deg. high; radical leaves round-ovate or cordate, slender-petioled; cauline (3--8' long) ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends; loosely paniculate racemes divaricate; pedicel and flower each a line long; _nutlets of the globose fruit equally short-glochidiate over the whole back_. (Cynoglossum Morisoni, _DC._)--Borders of woods and thickets, N. Eng. to Minn., south to Va. and La.

2. E. deflexum, Lehm., var. Americanum, Gray. Diffusely branched, about 1 deg. high, leaves oblong to lanceolate, racemes lax, loosely paniculate; flowers small; _nutlets of the globular-pyramidal fruit only marginally glochidiate_.--Iowa, Minn., and northward.

3. E. floribundum, Lehm. Rather strict, 2 deg. high or more; leaves oblong- to linear-lanceolate, the lowest tapering into margined petioles; racemes numerous, commonly geminate and in fruit rather strict; corolla larger (blue, sometimes white), 2--3'' in diameter; nutlets scabrous and margined with a close row of flat subulate prickles.--Minn. and Sask., and westward.

[*][*] _Racemes leafy-bracteate, stout pedicels not deflexed; calyx becoming foliaceous; leaves linear, lanceolate, or the lower spatulate; hispid annuals._

E. LAPPULA, Lehm. Erect, 1--2 deg. high, nutlets rough-granulate or tuberculate on the back, the margins with a double row of slender distinct prickles, or these irregular over most of the back.--Waste and cultivated grounds, from Canada to the Middle Atlantic States. (Nat. from Eu.)

4. E. Redowskii, Lehm., var. occidentale, Watson. Erect, 1--2 deg. high, at length diffuse; nutlets irregularly and minutely sharp-tuberculate, the margins armed with a single row of stout flattened prickles sometimes confluent at base.--Minn. to Tex., and westward.

4. KRYNITZKIA, Fisch. & Meyer.

Calyx 5-parted or deeply cleft, erect or little spreading in fruit. Corolla short, usually with more or less fornicate throat. Nutlets erect and straight, unarmed, attached to the axis either at inner edge of base or ventrally from the base upward.--Ours are very hispid annuals or biennials, with small white flowers in scorpioid spikes. A large western genus. (Dedicated to _Prof. J. Krynitzki_, of Cracow.)

1. K. crassisepala, Gray. Annual, diffusely much branched, a span high, very rough-hispid; _leaves oblanceolate and linear-spatulate_; flowers very small, short-pedicelled, mostly bracteate; _lobes of the persistent calyx closed over the fruit, the midrib below becoming much thickened_ and indurated; nutlets ovate, acute, _dissimilar_, 3 of them muricate-granulate and 1 larger and smooth, _attached from the base to the middle_.--Plains, Sask. to Kan., Tex. and N. Mex.

5. MERTENSIA, Roth. LUNGWORT.

Corolla trumpet-shaped or bell-funnel-shaped, longer than the deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted calyx, naked, or with 5 small glandular folds or appendages in the open throat. Anthers oblong or arrow-shaped. Style long and thread-form. Nutlets ovoid, fleshy when fresh, smooth or wrinkled, obliquely attached next the base by a prominent internal angle, the scar small.--Smooth or soft-hairy perennial herbs, with pale and entire leaves, and handsome purplish-blue (rarely white) flowers, in loose and short panicled or corymbed raceme-like clusters, only the lower one leafy-bracted; pedicels slender. (Named for _Prof. Francis Charles Mertens_, a German botanist.)

[*] _Corolla trumpet-shaped, with spreading nearly entire limb and naked throat; filaments slender, exserted; hypogynous disk 2-lobed._

1. M. Virginica, DC. (VIRGINIAN COWSLIP. LUNGWORT. BLUE BELLS.) Very smooth, pale, erect (1--2 deg. high); leaves obovate, veiny, those at the root (4--6' long) petioled; corolla trumpet-shaped, 1' long, many times exceeding the calyx, rich purple-blue, rarely white; nutlets dull and roughish.--Alluvial banks, N. Y. to Minn., S. C., and Ark. May. Cultivated for ornament.

[*][*] _Corolla with conspicuously 5-lobed limb, and crested throat._

[+] _Filaments broad and short; nutlets dull, wrinkled or roughish when dry._

2. M. paniculata, Don. Roughish and more or less hairy, erect (1--2 deg. high), loosely branched, _leaves ovate and ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, ribbed, thin_; corolla (6'' long) somewhat funnel-form, 3--4 times the length of the lance-linear acute divisions of the calyx, filaments broader and shorter than the anthers.--Shore of L. Superior and north and westward. July and Aug.

3. M. lanceolata, DC. Glabrous or hirsute, pale, 1 deg. high or less, simple or branched, _leaves spatulate-oblong to lanceolate-linear, smaller (1--2' long), nearly veinless, obtuse or acute_; corolla-tube somewhat longer than the lanceolate calyx-lobes; _filaments generally longer than the anthers_.--Dak. to N. Mex. and westward.

[+][+] _Filaments longer and narrower than the anthers; nutlets shining, utricular._

4. M. maritima, Don. (SEA LUNGWORT.) Spreading or decumbent, smooth, glaucous; leaves fleshy, ovate or obovate or spatulate, the upper surface becoming papillose; corolla white, bell-funnel-form (3'' long), twice the length of the calyx.--Sea-coast, on rocks and sand, Cape Cod to Maine and northward; scarce. June--Aug.

6. MYOSOTIS, Dill. SCORPION-GRASS. FORGET-ME-NOT.

Corolla salver-form, the tube about the length of the 5-toothed or 5-cleft calyx, the throat with 5 small and blunt arching appendages opposite the rounded lobes; the latter convolute in the bud! Stamens included, on very short filaments. Nutlets smooth, compressed, fixed at the base; the scar minute.--Low and mostly soft-hairy herbs, with entire leaves, those of the stem sessile, and with small flowers in naked racemes, which are entirely bractless, or occasionally with one or two small leaves next the base, prolonged and straightened in fruit. Flowering through the season. (Name composed of [Greek: my/s], _mouse_, and [Greek: ou~)s], [Greek: o)to/s], _ear_, in allusion to the aspect of the short and soft leaves in some species; one popular name is MOUSE-EAR.)

[*] _Calyx open in fruit, its hairs appressed, none of them hooked or glandular._