Chapter M: PALUSTRIS, Withering. (TRUE FORGET-ME-NOT.) Perennial; stems

ascending from an oblique creeping base (9--20' high), loosely branched, smoothish; leaves rough-pubescent, oblong-lanceolate or linear-oblong; calyx-lobes much shorter than its tube; limb of corolla 3 or 4 lines broad, sky-blue with a yellow eye.--In wet ground, probably only escaped from cultivation. (Nat. from Eu.)

1. M. laxa, Lehm. Perennial from filiform subterranean shoots; stems very slender, decumbent; pubescence all appressed; leaves lanceolate-oblong or somewhat spatulate; calyx-lobes as long as its tube; limb of corolla 2 or 3'' broad, paler blue. (M. palustris, var. laxa, _Gray_.)--In water and wet ground, Newf. to N. Y. (Eu.)

[*][*] _Calyx closing or the lobes erect in fruit, clothed with spreading hairs, some minutely hooked or gland-tipped; corolla small; annual or biennial._

2. M. arvensis, Hoffm. Hirsute with spreading hairs, erect or ascending (6--15' high); leaves oblong-lanceolate, acutish; _racemes naked at the base and stalked_; corolla blue, rarely white; _pedicels spreading in fruit and longer than the 5-cleft equal calyx_.--Fields, etc.; not very common. (Eu.)

3. M. verna, Nutt. Bristly-hirsute, branched from the base, erect (4--12' high); _leaves obtuse_, linear-oblong, or the lower spatulate-oblong; _racemes leafy at the base_; corolla very small, white, with a short limb; _pedicels in fruit erect and appressed_ at the base, usually abruptly bent outward near the apex, _rather shorter than the deeply 5-cleft unequal_ (somewhat 2-lipped) _very hispid calyx_.--Dry ground, rather common. May--July.